Most prepaid cards have a ton of fees that can really add up, thus making them pretty unfriendly to consumers. Is the Bluebird from American Express and Walmart any different? The answer may surprise you…

Anyone who is a regular reader of my blog will know that I have always taken a rather dim view of prepaid debit cards. That’s because virtually all of them feel like a scam given their punitive fee structures and limitations. Over the past several years, I think there are only a few that have ever received a favorable review from me (American Express’ prepaid card being one of them).

So how does the new Walmart BlueBird measure up? Is it the same thing? No. BlueBird is a debit card-based checking account alternative. It’s a wonderful concept and product but unfortunately Bluebird (nor any prepaid debit card) can’t help you build a credit history.

Going back to the review of the Amex BlueBird, there are some drawbacks, but the benefits far outweigh the costs if you’re in the market for a prepaid debit card.

Pros

Competitive fee structure – I created this chart to show you a quick side-by-side comparison. This chart doesn’t include every fee below for every card (some of these charge for replacement cards and others things). However, the fees below are the most common ones I think you would encounter during a given month…

Free cash reloads – As you see, there are two major differences between AmEx’s Bluebird debit account alternative (brought to you by AmEx and Walmart) and AmEx’s own prepaid card (brought to you from AmEx directly). The biggest differences are the number of free ATM uses – and probably more noticeable – the cost for loading cash onto the card.

As I mentioned in my review of the American Express Prepaid, its only week point is that its cash reloads can cost as much as $4.95 (because you have to buy a MoneyPak to then load onto your account). That issue doesn’t exist with the Bluebird, since it gives free cash reloads at Walmart stores. If you’ve ever had a prepaid card you will know this is a huge benefit. Unless you have direct deposit set up with your employer, loading money onto a prepaid card every month can get expensive in a hurry. You might think Walmart is being altruistic by not charging a fee, but there’s a method to the Arkansas-based juggernaut’s madness. They know if they can get you to come back in to their store on a regular basis you will most probably purchase more of their merchandise. There’s a reason they are the world’s largest retailer and a method to their madness.

Better Benefits – On all American Express cards – yes even their prepaid debit cards – you get Purchase Protection and Roadside Assistance (note: they only arrange roadside service, they don’t pay for it). If you’re not familiar with the Purchase Protection perk, it covers eligible items against theft and some types of accidental damages for 90 days from date of purchase. Terms and restrictions apply.

Walmart logo is not prominently featured – Not to diss Walmart, but having the Walmart logo splashed across the front of your debit card (like the Walmart MoneyCard does) isn’t exactly the classiest thing, or at least that’s a common complaint I’ve heard from people. If that bothers you, then the Bluebird is a nice alternative since it doesn’t have their logo on the card’s front. Keep in mind though, that could change in the future.

Can create sub-accounts – Similar to adding authorized users on a credit card, with Bluebird you can add sub-accounts and give them specific spending limits.

Transferring to other cards – Here’s a cool feature… you can transfer money from one Bluebird account to another free or charge. They allow this for up to $2,500 per month. This is a great option for those sending money to a friend, ex-spouse or family member who might live in another state or country. In fact, cross-border remittances are one of the biggest uses of prepaid cards for those who don’t have a traditional bank account or those who simply don’t trust banks. It eliminates the need for buying and sending a money order or wiring funds through Western Union each month, both of which can get expensive. With a prepaid card you can send the money to their prepaid card by just going online and completing the transaction without any fees involved.

Cons

Direct deposit required for free ATM use – Without it, be ready to fork over $2.00 each time you visit a MoneyPass ATM (and even more for out-of-network ATMs).

To avoid the $2 fee you will need to setup direct deposit. But if doing that is an option for you, then suddenly the other AmEx Prepaid becomes equally attractive since it offers free reloads thru direct deposit (meaning you could circumvent its nasty $4.95 expense for cash reloads).

FDIC insurance – Funds on a temporary Bluebird card are not FDIC insured. However, funds on your permanent card are, up to $250,000, with this caveat: Your Bluebird funds will take approximately one business day for them to be deposited into the FDIC-insured deposit accounts where they will be held. During this brief transfer period, they will not have FDIC protection.

This cannot help you build credit – In my opinion the #1 biggest reason you should avoid prepaid cards and debit account alternatives, because they do absolutely nothing to build your credit score. In fact, they don’t even show up on your credit report at all. That said, cards like Bluebird can be a great portable checking account and are ideal for those under 18 to learn to use plastic responsibly. Plus, they can be a good way to limit your spending since you can’t spend more than is loaded to the card.

But, you have to ask yourself this question… do you really want to be in the prepaid crowd your whole life? Or would you rather work your way up to bigger and better things and swim in the adult pool? If the latter, I would recommend going with a secured credit card instead. Here are the benefits they offer:

You can get one even with bad credit – A secured card is backed by your security deposit. For that reason, you can get one even if you have terrible credit.

It shows on your report like a regular credit card – Most secured cards will show up on your report the exact same way a regular unsecured card would.

Use it to build credit – With responsible use, it can help you build credit. This of course will help you with future goals like buying a car or getting a mortgage some day.

Verdict?

When it comes to the fee structures, it’s hard to complain about the Bluebird card. This is by far the best debit account alternative in terms of overall fees (or lack thereof) and if you do frequent cash reloads. The only big drawback about it, in my opinion at least, is that you have to remember the Bluebird cannot help you build or improve your credit score. For that reason, I suggest you consider getting a good credit card, as well.

Written or last updated February 2, 2015

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Editorial Disclosure: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

I love it have never had an issue with card nor customer service! Just have to make sure places take American express a lot don’t I am finding out but always make sure to have some cash! And mister underwriter you sir make me laugh I really could give less what you think about me or my circumstances just because I am using this card! But as I was reading all these reviews I noticed one small thing, your trolling, along with feeling the need to bully others! There is this thing called respect and you bitter man were obviously never taught this, as I am reading your disgusting take on why people have this card I felt as if you may have been bullied alittle much yourself and feel the need to belittle people on a review site not just a review site one that has in your eyes the low society people. My question is if your so high on the totem pole must you troll our ground level board, you must have bigger and better people to deal with right? I may or may not have a lot of money but I DO sleep soundly and wake up with a smile everyday because I know it pisses people like you off to see an average joe be happy in our low standards. My regards to you hopefully that stick comes outta your ass soon, ( yeah I said OUTTA cause I CAN) with out much pain felt!

Misleading statement on securing the per day limit. It’s not a per day as they say – It’s per transactions in a 24 hour period starting with the first transaction. So if you have it locked down to 200 per day transaction limit and you spend 180 on 2/7/2015 at 5:00pm and try to run another 100 say at 8:00am then next day the transaction will not go through – At least that’s what they just told me.

I have a super high FICO, but use BlueBird because I do not want to leave my money in any of the evil “Too Big to Fail” banks (Yes, I realize AMEX is probably no better, but I still feel like making a statement against BofA, CITI, Wells, Chase, so I tried Bluebird).

I am very happy with the Bluebird service with one glaring exception: They offer check deposit via their check photographing app, but half the time, it does not work!

About 50% of the time, I will use the mobile app to photograph a check written to me, and Bluebird will reject the check. They defer all responsibility to “Certegy Check Verification Services” out of Tampa Florida. Contacting either Bluebird or Certegy results in a phone menu hell of “you need to contact them, not us.”

Certegy rep said “The check from Alaska Airlines (!!!) was not rejected due to anything in your personal credit report, but we cannot give you a specific reason for the rejection.”

HUH?

Extremely frustrating, to the point that I’ve filed a complaint against Certegy for not providing me a way to rectify the problem (“Tell the writer of the check (Alaska Airlines!!!) to contact us” is unacceptable).

Okay, you get a flimsy pretend-looking card in the box that you can load at a Walmart checkout. And, surprise surprise, it works like any other card for point of sale transactions. That’s pretty much where the “goodness” ends.

After that, they send you a “real” card that you have to spend time setting up and confirming and all that goes with setting up an account. So, it begins to lose it’s “minimal effort” selling point pretty fast to reap any of the other functions of the card (like adding funds while NOT at walmart).

Then, expect your account to be suddenly “flagged” without being told anything or with no one calling you. You then have to call in, provide copies of the front AND backs of cards that you use to fund the account, and go through other time consuming and painful measures, just to ADD money to the card.

Is it worth it? I didn’t think so, and even though I have to pay a fee when withdrawing money at non-bank ATMs, I went back to a bank just because I’m not going to let a “free” card seize up my money. It’s ridiculous . . . especially requiring me to PHOTOCOPY my funding sources to send in??? Sounds like an overseas internet scam more than a bank.

Oh, and there’s no obvious way to reach these people in writing. It’s always going to take time on the phone. Another ridiculous thing in 2015.

Seriously I don’t understand the hype of traditional banking. For those of you out there that think for a minute that you have reached some status by banking with a traditional bank, I guess you will enjoy the fees most banks charge for “Status” Monthly Fee, Check Image Fee, Out of Network ATM fee, Wire Fee, overdraft fees, Check fees, and now even some banks charge to speak with a live representative. Unless you are doing international and domestic wires on a routine basis. You may want to consider dumping your bank.

With all the plusses to the Bluebird Card, I feel excellent customer service is of equal importance. When calling, reaching a CSR, and the language barrier aside(of utmost importance as we age, and hearing is compromised), it’s always appreciated when a problem can be resolved in a successful manner. My experiences on recent calls have left me vowing to never use it again. The Philippines is the ONLY area of the world, I think, that handles this card. I’ve had a girl admit her speaker on headset was low, apologize, turn the volume up and proceed to put me on hold for 20 min’s waiting for SOMEONE that might speak clearly enough to be understood. I was told my issue from an unauthorized automatic charge from HULU required me to call their company and get a charge blocked. The THIRD csr I spoke with told me he could easily do it, and it took 30 seconds. When I asked for a U.S. branch, I was given a number for their fraud department in Arizona. This woman took down my complaint even though it wasn’t her area to deal with. All sympathy for their low wages and unpredictable natural disasters on their island aside, they are still required to perform their jobs with honesty and cooperation. I blame the handling of this branch of Bluebird on Wal-Mart ONCE AGAIN choosing cheap over quality. My patience has been compromised for the last time. One shouldn’t have to be put through hell to achieve satisfaction or be blatantly lied to, put on hold until they know you’ll hang up, given false contact numbers, or played games with. If anyone knows of a similar type card with Customer Service branches in the U.S., give me a heads up.

Seriously you limit my amount of funds I can withdraw of MY OWN MONEY??!!! Its the holiday season and of course cash is always a great gift!!! As usual most of my family receives cash that way they can buy what the like – PROBLEM! My 19 year old FEMALE daughter is on the side of the road with a flat 4 hours away and there is NOTHING they can do so I can send her money to get home!! She has been there for 4 hours crying – ive called 4 times they say they are sending a western union – I have been hung up on 2x – never again will I use this card for my payroll deposit. ITS MY MONEY!!!

First, this article needs some updating. I don’t know how recently this happened, but BlueBird funds are federally insured, up to $250k.

I tried BB out of chance, by signing up through an online offer. I was thinking that I’d just throw it away later, but it’s actually proved useful. I use it for government deposits (taxes, school refunds, etc.) with no trouble. I also have it connected to my Amazon Payments account, so I can transfer money to BB from there, & it takes a single business day usually.

You can load it using cash at a register at Wal*Mart. Take cash off of it at a register at Wal*Mart. I’ve used it for paying bills, but it is a bit slow–takes about a week to process.

I’ve never really had an issue with this card. Maybe I got lucky, but some of the issues some of the below have had with the card wasn’t the fault of the card at all [ for example, the gas station hold story below ]. The conspiracy theorists are really something. The government tracks you, no matter what you’re using. Overall, I’d recommend. It’s an easy little debit card that you can use at credit in stores & online. As a bonus, it can be used in Costco [ it is AMEX, you know ]. I wish people would use common sense & stop spreading misinformation. The only thing I can’t attest to is customer service, because I’ve never had to contact them yet. Here’s hoping I never do.

I registered for a BlueBird Account for the sole purpose of transferring my Walmart Savings Catcher Dollars and getting 2x’s the worth. I tried to log-in to transfer the savings and it kept saying my username and password didn’t work because of my account status and to call customer service. I called customer service and the lady really couldn’t help me and tried transferring me to registration to which I never got through. It was really hard to understand her because of her thick accent. I’m guessing she was somewhere in the Phillipines. I tried again and got another lady with the same accent and after awhile I was transferred to some guy who told me that I needed to do an identity verification and that I could upload documents and then they would allow me to transfer my Walmart savings dollars. I decided not to go through with it because I have already been a victim of ID theft and I am not sending over documents to god knows where. This is totally outrageous that they would ask someone to do this in this day and age. Forget it!

I just purchased the bluebird card I will only use it for double points from savings catcher program..I had $15 in savings catcher after I bought temp card registered it verified email doubled my $$..called walmart bucks$ I am just using it for that purposes only..

This card is just to catalog all the sub human species. The government needs this information more than you need the card. You will be put into a big data base for data research for it’s the new world order for keeping track of those holding signs on cardboard to those sitting on bus stop benches. As government has no way of keeping track than to back cards like this as tracking devices. Everyone has to be cataloged who use this card are giving tracks in your adventure in life. As you migrate from homeless shelters to homeless shelters. It will show you spend time in Arizona in the winter and in Colorado in the summer.

As all good ranchers as well as government’s know. You have to keep track of your stock. So they can’t tag you in the ear like a sheep or cows so they give you this no fee card.

HEED THE WARNINGS ON THIS SITE! This card is a total joke! I applied last week after a cashier at Walmart recommended it. I did my research to make sure I wasn’t applying for a credit card and registered for a card. Turns out this is some type of debit card. I got a response saying my application was under review. What application? All it asked for was my name, address and a phone number. When I called the next day to inquire, I was told that the process takes up to 48 hours and that the information on my application has to be verified. So five days pass and I still have not heard anything so I call customer service a second time. This time I’m told that my application will be approved and that I should expect to receive an email. Once I get that email, there will be two documents attached, blah, blah, blah. My mind started to wander at that point. WTF? You’d think I was applying for a mortgage with all the red tape and hoops they expect you to jump through for a stupid debit card. I just wanted to take advantage of the “double my savings” promotion that they’re offering through Walmart but after this hassle, never mind. I told the girl to cancel my application because this was getting to be a major event and that I was no longer interested and she said they couldn’t do that. What a freakin’ waste of my time. I would not recommend applying for this card. I already have a debit card. Why the heck anyone would need one from American Express is beyond me and thank goodness I was spared the horrible experiences that others are reporting AFTER they’ve tried using their card! This won’t be around long.

Did you apply online?. This sounds like you were applying for a credit card, not the Bluebird account. All the website asks for is your name, contact info and soc sec#. Then an ATM pin and security question at the bottom and hit the agree button.

I just started using the Walmart Savings Catcher. When I was notified that I have money coming back, I had the choice of keeping it with Walmart or getting the Bluebird card. For double the money, I thought it would be a good idea, but I am disturbed that they want my Social Security number on the application. Is this something I should be concerned about? The fine print says they can and do share this information.

I am wondering if the reason you are asked for your SS# is so they can 1099 you if you get more than $600 back.? That is what prevented me from getting the card. I would rather not have to deal with that.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the us government passed a law called the PATRIOT Act (“Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001″).

One of the requirements of this law is for Financial Institutions (in this case, American Express) to obtain certain information on customers. Unless there is suspicious activity identified (very vague definition to that), the FI has no obligation to provide customer information to the government. However, your name and social security number will be processed through a government software program that will compare your name and social against a list of “known” bad people. If your name matches, you will be contacted by the FI to provide more information to prove that you are not Saddam Hussein, the dictator, just a guy named Saddam Hussein – or whoever your name matches up against.

All financial transactions are monitored for suspicious activity – generally related to money laundering, but more and more for transactions that could likely be related to terrorist activity. The banks are required to report this suspicious activity. The “know your customer” process is expensive for banks and leaves the banks open to horrific fines and penalties if they miss activity that should be flagged. They derive no benefit from the law, therefore, they do as little reporting as possible to meet the requirement of the law.

Now, if you are like me, you understand that the PATRIOT act most likely violates the US constitution, but in the fear mongering at the time of 9/11, it passed with almost no opposition in the house and the senate.

We can either lose our privacy, or combat terrorism, drug activity and illegal gambling. Talk to your government officials if you want this changed. The banks have done all they can to get the law repealed. In the meantime, understand that protecting your privacy from the government is not an option for a FI.

If you use anything other than cash, the store has a way to track and categorize your purchases. It’s a fact of life. And before you think of using cash for everything, keep in mind that the term Financial Institution is a broad term which includes check cashing stores and pay day loan stores. The government has deemed these types of business as high risk, so you will be under more scrutiny using one of them instead of a bank. Anyone business who sells money orders over a certain amount has to maintain a monetary instrument log, with your information on it, that must be handed over to the government when requested.

Long story short – no matter how you are using “money”, unless you received it illegally as cash and spend it as cash, your information will be stored somewhere.

LG November 8, 2014 at 4:29PM

I have this bluebird card for almost three years now,so far i never encounter any problems even getting access on line was perfect,Just read the Policy and the agreement and you will never get wrong.The only problem that i encountered so far was,certain stores don’t accept American Express,so be careful when you are shopping on line or going to the stores,that never accept American Express.Every time i get paid i just load certain amount on this card,because the Walmart don’t give cash back,except they have the ATM kiosk in the corner of their store that bears the logo Moneypass.If this logo don’t show up in another ATM outside of Walmart vicinity,they will charge a certain fee for ATM withdrawals.hope this will help.

It seems a bulk of the people complaining about this card all either didn’t bother to be clear on the terms (ie. read everything) or are suffering from sort sort of learning disability… which might explain why they didn’t read everything. I’ve had a Bluebird card for a little over a month and a half and the only issue I have had so far is it took a little longer than 7 days to get my permanent card. I’d never try to deposit a check on this thing though as I’m familiar with the whole process a check has to go through in order to be approved and cleared by the issuing and presenting bank (information which is readily available if you bother), and that can take some time depending on the policies of each banking entity involved. Some of you sound like you don’t bother researching anything and just expect things to work the way you want them to just because you can’t be bothered with handling things responsibly. And to the Canadian, are you serious? The Homeland Security Act of 2002 makes it virtually impossible for anyone who is not a U.S. Cititzen to utilize any type of financial service in the U. S. without certain conditions, so your own ignorance cost you that $5. Grow up people and try doing some reading first.

I am just curious before I decide on getting this card (because of all the negativity associated with it), is it worth it to get the card? Also, can you transfer PayPal balances to said card/account? If so, how are you able to do it? Thanks.

I opened a Bluebird account in Sept 2014 in order to receive the benefits of matching deposits from the Walmart Savings Catcher. It seemed/seems like a good deal if for no other reason than saving a few dollars and having them available for purchases maybe when the budget is tight or there are unexpected expenses. I opted not to buy a temporary card after reading that I would receive a permanent one in the mail in 7-10 days. To date I have not yet received my card for whatever reasons and finally got around to calling their Customer Service number to report the issue.

For God’s sake, DO NOT call that number for any reason! I don’t know who or where they offshored the Bluebird Customer Service to but the woman’s understanding of English was awful. She verified all of my information and told me to log in to their website (I’d already told her that I was) and she told me to click on the Activate my Card button. I had a very difficult time explaining to her that not only did I not purchase a temporary card (she kept saying that I couldn’t activate my card until I received one) but I had not received the permanent one.

Then with that bit finally hashed out and a promise to re-send a permanent card she advised me that I couldn’t use my card until I called them to activate my card and I made the mistake of reminding her that I could avoid a polite but unnecessarily long phone call by Activating it online and she went off into a tangent again saying that I was unable to do that until I’d received my card in 5 business days in another endless circuitous discussion.

I asked her if English was her first language and explained that I wasn’t being insulting but that she needed to improve her communication skills. She didn’t answer and I suspect she didn’t understand the question or explanation. They clearly had no support tree or script and the woman had very poor english language skills but was very polite.

If this is the state of American Express’s customer service as well I will likely never again use their services.

I had the same problem, but I didn’t receive my card called they kept telling me it was coming and it never did, they reissued another card….. Never received it!!! Again I called back explained I didn’t get my card so they finally go in after I asked them to check the information that was written down after I called back and made sure everything was ok …. The address was one number wrong and they had go over it with me kt he last time I called. I told them no you have the wrong address and told them the one number that was wrong, well they would not change it even though they made the mistake, she said I would need to send a utility bill to prove it was me even after I gat them the last four digits of my ss# and my security question, along with the last 4 digits to my card from the email they sent me!!! Not good enough, when I explained to her that the utility bill had my hubands name she acted as if that was the weirdest thinkg she had ever heard She said it was for my security but they can send my card to my neighbors address!! I did go down the street to see if they happen to receive it and they had not had any UPS mail at all!!! This has gone on for 2 months, the only way to fix it is to closed that account and I may try again in 30 days, I have 60.00 on savings catcher and I cannot get a card to double it!!! So now I have opened one in my daughter name but not sure if saving catcher will double if put in her acct. Ugh!!! I am so disappointed in the service I have received from American Express !!!!!!!!!!!!!

to the canadian: I am pretty sure that as a canadian citizen you can’t just open a US bank account without some hassles. Bluebird is no different than any other US debit card in that regard. Seriously, it sounds as though alot of people just need to vent and have found a mutual admiration society on this board. Bluebird has worked painlessly for me since May of ’13. I mail in my deposits, I use the card to pay bills, I go to Walmart to use the ATM (still need to pay $2 per withdrawal since my employer doesn’t offer direct deposit). No fees, no inadvertent overdrafts, I’m never in the red. As long as I don’t need to cash a check instantly it’s all good. Takes as long as any other out of state bank takes to process deposits. The alternative? cash paychecks at a smelly corner store for $5, pay bills with WUpay or money orders (few bucks apiece). Walk down to the corner store again to reload a pre-paid card to buy junk off the internet. All in all, bluebird saves me tons of cash. All the complaints people seem to have with Bluebird they’d have with any other similar account, except they’d have to pay alot more money in order to bitch about it. Overall, it’s a great value. If you want pie in the sky features, you’ll never get them from anyplace else, especially at this price.

This the email I received from them today, they want me to send them a copy of my debit card and drivers license. I do not feel comfortable doing that. Is this for real or a scam? I have almost $100 on it and want to pull it out but if it is locked how do I get my money? Please advice.

During a recent review, we noticed irregular activity on your Bluebird Account. For your security and protection, some of the features on your Bluebird Account have been suspended while we conduct further investigation.

In order to restore these account features, please help us verify your identity by sending a readable copy of the following documents within ten days of the date on this email:

Valid Picture ID
A valid driver’s license card OR
A valid state issued ID OR
A valid Government ID Card (e.g. Green Card)OR
A valid United States Passport

A copy of your Bank Statement from US Bank Account Ending in 2264 , which is dated within the last 3 months, and shows your name, address and last four digits of your account number.

A copy of the front of the Debit Card Ending in NA.

For your convenience, these documents can be sent in one of the following three ways:

it is not a scam, they do it to all of their customers. when it happened to me I through a fit(that’s saying it nice lol). after 9-11 they have to make sure you are you.. I spend 10s of thousands a year through my card so I got hit fast but its ok they are just doing their job..

I got no such request for IDs. I clicked through to Bluebird at Walmart’s SavingsCatcher. Three days later I have the Bluebird card and have transferred a few bucks to it from my bank debit card. The money transfer shows up immediately on the web site. The 2X SavingsCatcher bucks transfer immediately, too. I have just signed up for a “family account” Bluebird card for my kid, which is a secure way to give her use of a card while controlling her spending. It has barely any fees, so long as you use an ATM in the system. No downside that I can see.

Serious, really fatal problem with Bluebird account is that they continually decline checks I attempt to deposit based on the fact check clearance is handled by a third party, Certegy, which refuses to accept the checks for no clear or apparent reason. The checks are in fact perfectly good, because I subsequently deposit them to Bank of America, Chase or U.S. Bank accounts I have – with no problems. But when Certegy declines to accept them, Bluebird then passes all accountability on to Certegy which, when contacted, offers no good reason for the action. Head-spinning, eye-rolling failure of the Bluebird system. This is a fatal flaw with Bluebird, and will probably lead to my canceling my account and my relationship with them. To make matters more frustrating, Bluebird accords itself an overly generous week or so to clear deposit checks and credit the funds to user accounts – plenty of time to verify that the check is good and funds are available. So why would they give themselves and their reputation a black eye by allowing such arbitrary and senseless check declines, by a third party no less? Incomprehensibly bad service, which will doom this otherwise appealing product by American Express.

Here’s what I know about Blue Bird as a card holder for over 1 year. Yes you can transfer funds to another Blue Bird holder and pay bills in line. Plus I have direct deposit. The problem is this, and has been for 6 months. Its the checks. I ordered 50 for free and it was easy to pay my rent and what other bills I can not pay on line. I ran out. Tried to order more, can’t. Call customer service and they make up some excuse that I can not order for 2 months as they were up-grading the system. I call back 2 months later, (after 30 minutes on the phone) only to find out they extended the promotion and I can not order try in 2 more months, I do and after another 30minutes again the promotion is extended and I can not order checks. Nor can a supervisor order for me. this may not sound like much but the card is for convenience so I have to spend $2.00 to draw out cash to spend another .60 to buy a money order, plus the gas. They are not insurance with FCIC.

I got declined at McDonalds. I came home logged in to the account to discover it said I was locked out and to call to unlock. I did just that and was told my charges are being verified and they will inform me by email when can log back into my account. I need my money and I am furious. I can get anybody to help me. What if I was depositing my check on this card. I feel helpless. Will I really get my money back?

It tells you where you click at Wal*Mart to sign up for it that you can only use it at Wal Mart.

“Double your Reward Dollars* with Bluebird – an account with flexible features to help you get more from your money – then spend them exclusively at Walmart or Walmart.com. Learn More”

IKB June 5, 2014 at 12:25PM

Overall Experience: Very pleased, Customer Service interactions were helpful

I opened up a Bluebird account at the beginning of the year. I’m in college and specifically wanted a separate account for my financial aid stipend funds to be deposited into. So far I’ve had no issues with customer service. They’ve even been very helpful to me. There was a security issue at the beginning where I had to submit documentation for proof of identity when trying to connect it to other accounts. That’s no different than any other kind of account I’ve had, though, including Paypal and bank accounts. They even let me submit photos of my ID documents from my phone. They were very helpful throughout that short process and I think we got it all squared away the same day.

I have since received direct deposit for my financial aid stipend and have made large purchases from Amazon, Best Buy and Tiger Direct (tech equipment purchase for school) as well as small purchases at all kinds of stores. I’ve never had a problem in those situations. I even have recurring transfers set up that come on schedule every 2 weeks from my Paypal account! The ONLY problem I’ve had making purchases so far is attempting to pay for gas. For those who have had issues at gas stations, what I’ve learned is that it’s not the fault of any particular card. When paying at the pump, almost ANY card will place a large hold to ensure your funds cover the purchase. This happened to me even with my Paypal card. Since then, I usually just go inside to pay for my gas. It seems safer anyway, and since paying inside I’ve never had any issues.

The only other issue I experienced actually happened at Walmart of all places. I was attempting to send money to someone via Moneygram, and tried to pay using my Bluebird card. However, Walmart’s own card reader wouldn’t recognize the Bluebird card as anything other than credit, and apparently they don’t like you to pay for money transfers with credit. Seems weird, Walmart sells the card. Heck, they partnered up with AMEX to create it. Why then wouldn’t the company’s own system know that this is a debit card? Ah well, not too important as I had another method to pay with. Just annoying, but that’s more of a Walmart issue than an issue with the card itself.

And to those who feel that these types of cards are mainly to allow “illegal immigrants” to put money into something like a bank account, think again. That isn’t the reason cards like this were created. There are tons of people, young and old, who don’t have the credit or situation to get actual bank accounts or credit cards. I have had trouble in the past getting a bank account after having problems with Bank of America attempting to charge me unwarranted overdraft fees (back when they weren’t being regulated). Since then I’ve had to depend on cards like this. I’m not an illegal alien or immigrant. Was born and raised right here in GA. It’s just an alternative for dealing with some of the older banking and credit systems out there, and I for one appreciate the option.

It’s also very handy for young people and students who need to receive money from parents for their allowances or while in college. So far I’m very pleased with the card. The next test will be whether my potential new job will allow direct deposit to this card. In the past I’ve had that issue, where jobs or their payroll companies don’t accept prepaid accounts as valid accounts for direct deposit. But seriously, if the federal government will allow direct deposit to a Bluebird account then no payroll company should have a problem with it. We’ll just have to see. If this potential new job accepts it, then this card will definitely receive an A+ rating from me!

There’s a reason it’s a debit card, not a credit card. It says so on the card itself and on the website. DUH. The Bluebird card is the best debit card out there. The only fee without direct deposit is using an ATM. I had the card for a year and a half, and no complaints.

I have had my blunders card since they came out… and I could not be happier with it!! thentheycame out with the checks and well let’s just say another bingo in my books!! I write checks for bills with bluebird all the Time and have never had an issue..even wrote a check out wring and had to call support and they were very nice an my funds were released back to the account in 5 minutes… I transfer funds from my regular bank.account all the Time using my debit card… fee free (100 max per day allowed by debit card transfers) never had any issues… I couldntbe more pleased with my decision to go with bluebird and everything is virtually fee free!!! big yay in my books…. they are always coming up with something he for bluebird and I have yet to be displeased with any of the added features!! I have recommended this card to lots an lots of people already!!!

I think this is the worst place ever I tried using the card at Walmart to get grocery but the card was decline so I didn’t get food for the house but the card company still took money off my card and the card was only decline because the card company was having computer problems the way I see it if I didn’t walk out of walmart with the food I never should of had money taken from me when we called they said I had to wait 8 days for that money to come back and when we called customer support the manager just hangs up on us customer service is crappie worst idea ever I am going to cancel direct deposit and crush this junk card cause they can’t treat there customers like they would want to be treated I suggest everybody find a different card company sincerely a hungry costumer

Getting a Bluebird card was a huge mistake. Transferred money from a bank account and when it was taking forever to process I called Bluebird customer service (who I could barely understand) and was told it would take 7-10 days to process. They also put a $100 hold on my card when I bought gas which was $29. They processed the $29 amount for the gas in 3 days, but the hold is left on for 7-10 days. This is totally unacceptable. Getting my money out and will never use Bluebird again!!!!!!

The hold on your card was not the fault of Bluebird–gas stations commonly hold funds when you pay at the pump. >__> It can range anywhere from 1$ to 100$. It’s used to make sure you have the money in your account. If this is an issue, it’s better to pay inside.

I have a BB card for about a year and it was good for paying bills. I read many complaints and thought they were overblown – - until I had an issue. My card is listed as R. Last Name. I prefer it that way in case I lose the card. My federal refund was rejected. I called three times and their non-native English speakers are nice but not very well-versed and could not help me. I sent all of my proof of identify to their “Security Dept” who said they will not add my first name to the card. So I cancelled the card since I cannot deposit anything to it.

After reading other reviews and having my own experience I’d be fearful of leaving any money on this card because, if an issue arises, their customer service and security team appears clueless and you money is placed at risk.

There are many debit cards with low or no fees that are much more reputable and have English speaking service reps.

I like many others thought that if the American Express name is attached to it than it must be good but sadly that is not the case.

I have serious problems with Bluebird customer service. IF you need help, then DONT call them. They offer no solutions and are little to no assistance. On 5/1/2014, they had a system outage and all cardholders were unable to charge or get money off at an ATM. They failed to notify any customers and many of us were left high and dry at resturants or gas stations trying to get money off our cars when we had available funds. When calling for expected solution, the customer service team can offer none. If not for the free loading and free ATM. I would cancel this service. It is the best of all of the prepaids so I stick with horrible customer service until I can get a better account.

What happens when you go into a negative balance on you bluebird card? I purchased something online, and it took me into a negative balance, and it has me worried. Will they put a hold on my account? Will I have a certain amount of days to load how much I spent onto the card? Please reply back if you have answers thank you.

This card is a joke!!! After activating it several times, about one accumulated hour on the phone with “customer service” (I use that term verrrry loosely) it still keeps getting declined for even purchases at Wal-Mart even though I put $100 on it.

I’ve had a bluebird card almost since they came out. You do need to read the fine print to understand a few oddities, e.g., eight days to get you funds back after canceling an on-line transaction — very puzzling. I got the card just to buy things on the Internet so that I would not have to use my bank debit/visa or a traditional credit card. When I want to buy something I go to a Wal-Mart and add funds using cash. I have had zero serious problems.
On one occasion, the system at Wal-Mart would not allow me to put cash on the card. I called customer service, they put me on hold for three minutes. Then they told me to try again five hours latter. On the next day, it worked just fine. Indian accents are not that hard for me to understand.
On another occasion, I tried to add over $3,000 for some camera equipment that I wanted to buy on Amazon. That’s when I found out about the $1,000 per day limit on adding cash. Again, very puzzling! Why would they want to limit what you can put on the card? I just went to Wal-Mart over the next four days or so, and put all the money on. Yes, a bother, but I drive past all Wal-Mart on the way to and from the office.
I have also used bluebird to make purchases at Costco both at the register and at the gas pump. AMex is the only credit card that Costco takes; I just wanted to see if it worked. I wonder if Wal-Mart is entirely happy with that situation. After all, a bluebird card would be much more convenient to use than the pre-paid Costco cards that a lot of Costco customers use, yet Sam’s is Costco’s most ardent competitor.
For me, a bluebird card is an unbelievable deal. They can’t be making any money off of a customer like me who rarely leaves much of a balance on the card. I have not tried any of the more exotic services, but as a mechanism for making online purchases, it seems almost unbeatable.
Would I use a bluebird instead of a bank account? No way! We have one of those bank accounts that charges nothing so long as we maintain a minimum balance. Banks offer a lot of services to their customers that — even though you don’t need them frequently — are incredibly valuable when you do need them. Also, banks can provide information to lenders regarding your deposit history. This can be a very important if you are self employed or just make a lot of money from a side business. Also, banking laws make it pretty difficult for banks to hold up your money when you need it. Credit card companies might take months to sort out a problem, even if it involves a significant amount of money that you might need to deal with an emergency — or just pay your bills. I find that it is of considerable value to sit down with your bank and look closely at all of the different types of accounts that they offer. Most larger banks now offer a lot of different types of accounts suited to varying needs.
Bluebird is cool, but I suspect that Wal-Mart’s true purpose is to provide bank-like services to illegal aliens who can’t get traditional bank accounts without a valid SS#. Remember how Bank of America got into some trouble some years back for giving bank accounts to Illegal Aliens who were using obviously stolen SS#s.
Yeah, bluebird takes your SS# when you sign up, but like a lot of employers, they have no real way to verify the actual ownership of that number. They probably just check to see if major fraud is associated with the provided SS#. Most of the services offered by bluebird would be a god-send to someone working 10 to 12 hours a day six days a week — even if those services do not work perfectly.
Personally, I am against illegal immigration, but I strongly believe that we should help Illegals live a dignified life so long as they are here. Hell, if I were poor and living in Mexico, damn strait, I’ll try to get into the USA if I could.

Sorry if this has already been asked/answered, but is there a way to download bluebird transactions into quicken to keep track of expenses etc? Cant seem to figure out if that is possible, and customer service seems to say no way…

First of all I doesn’t matter for what reason a person has this card. If you put your money on it you should be able to access it PERIOD. I put 800 dollars on this card thinking it was a good idea. WRONG..I’m now 10 days late on rent because I can’t buy a money order with it at Wal-Mart. It will NOT let me pull any money out from an ATM and it’s rediculous!

I got bluebird awhile ago, and I’m so over it.
It doesn’t work with paypal (for me atleast)
The gas stations I normally go to doesn’t accept it, neither does my child’s daycare and so far the only place that I know accepts it is Walmart. Go figure right?

I’ve had a Wired Plastic card which is issued by The Bancorp Bank. It blocked for no reason. My funds were stuck in the account and some shady dude by the name of Maurice in the risk department said my account had been closed and Wired Plastic no longer wanted to do business with me. That’s fine but what about my funds? Well Maurice said Wired Plastic is not releasing the funds. Wtf? That’s theft! Maybe Maurice is placing holds on the accounts so he can steal the money.

Don’t let it happen to you. File complaints and expose their unethical business practices. File a complaint with the CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent federal agency that holds primary responsibility for regulating consumer protection with regard to financial products and services in the United States.

They’ll forward your complaint to the company and work to get a response. After they forward your complaint, the company has 15 days to respond to you and the CFPB.

I have had bluebird for a while now. No major issues, no foreign representatives have ever spoken to me. The only problem I have is the amount of time it takes to transfer money over from an external bank account. I was also told that even though it is a prepaid account per say, the fact that it is a checking alternative, It is FDIC insured for permanent members as of 2013. Yet, I haven’t found much supportive document on what I have been told. I haven’t tried using the checks yet and I don’t really care for ATMs, I don’t use them much. I just wish AmEX will come out with a real checking account because I respect their brand. They already have savings account online, why not checking?

The first and only check written on my new Bluebird account was pre-authorized properly and sent to the recipient, who earned the money I was sending them. The problem came when they cashed the check at their bank, the bank declined it, causing it to be returned. Bluebird Customer Service Claimed a technical glitch caused a stop payment on the check and was the cause of the decline. Wrong Bluebird! The reason the check was declined is because the banks are fearing this new way of banking as pure competition and will muddy the waters for Bluebird as much as possible to drive the customer base they are losing to Bluebird back to their fee charging bank. Bluebird was nice enough to provide a $25 Good Faith Fee and requested I re-issue the check. My fear is this will happen again and again as it is an american express check. Fortunately, Bluebird offers other ways of sending money to someone you owe. I am going to try the Send Money function Monday to see if that works better. If it does, I will never write another check from this account and only use bill pay and send moneys to pay my creditors. Will post my results of this test next week. I hope it works, and I can figure the best way to use the Bluebird account without issues, because I really am starting to dislike the big fee taking, account sweeping when they want to, and arrogant attitudes of the big banks.
My only dislike about the Bluebird American Express account is it is actually Bluebird India Express. Not really an issue with me having American Express using some of the best programmers in the world to develop your site and operating systems software, but they should have retained the customer service and data operations here in the US. This would make the US market more eager to join and take Bluebird to the next level of competing with the big established american banking system. Just my opinion!

I have had bluebird almost a year now and they have made 3 major mistakes. The first they did not credit my account for a direct deposit. They fixed it 3 days later. Then I tried to transfer funds to a sub account but bluebird had system errors and froze up the money for 3 days. Now the irs sent my direct deposit but guess what? Bluebird has not put it on my account so more run around. Third time is the charm so I think I will cancel they are not recommended!!!

Well I decided to take a bluebird card because I had serve. Not as feature rich as bluebird. I have had this account for about 7 months and have had the some issues, but most of the time resolved. 1 Bluebird checks. I really like that idea with the authorization code, the money comes out and the check is guaranteed. 2. Loading free at WAL-MART how could you beat that. Now you are only allowed to take 500.00 Per day and it is free at walmart as long if you have direct deposit. And yes I NEVER NEVER EVER PAY AT the gas pump. Yes some places DO NOT TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS, Some do Just read the terms and conditions on the website. This card is good for some people and it is not for others. I would recommend that if you have to have to go on a trip carry a little cash just in case. Crap happens.

I decided to give this card a try so that I could leave my bank which had too many fees. I thought it would be easier to use. To be honest I did not read all of the rules about using the card before getting it. This was my mistake. If you are thinking about getting one make sure you read all of the rules that are attached to the card. You might find yourself in a situation that calls for needing to get funds and you won’t be able to because of some of those rules. It left me in a huge bind. Forget about customer service helping you, unless you can handle the heavy accent. I understand that these companies save a lot of money by opening their customer service centers in foreign countries and then they can pass that savings onto you. That’s just business. However, every time I tried understanding the service rep it was very difficult due to their accents, and this caused extra frustration. I know they can speak and understand the English language quite well, and they probably worked really hard learning it, so I give kudos to that. However the accent was too much for me and like I said it caused confusion and extra frustration in an already frustrating situation. Everyone needs a job and I respect them for working hard. I do not fault them, they are just doing their jobs to the best of their ability. I have decided to go back to my bank and I am glad to pay the small fees associated with my account for the convenience and ease of use.

My bluebird card info was somehow stolen and used by someone over seas. when i contacted customer service about it the first two reps i spoke with could have cared less. i too had an extremely hard time understanding the supervisor because she had a very thick accent and spoke very fast. i begged to be transfered to someone in the states, to that i was told “there is no one in the states that can help you” i will NEVER have an amex card of any sorts after this

This happened to me this morning: I was trying to transfer money from my walmart debit card into my bluebird with the bluebird app, at the end a notice pops and said I have to activate my card(I had it for more than a year, no big issues)calling the 800 number. I did however, they told me I need to send an ID document so they can “unlock some features” of my card, Then I ask why up to now they are asking and they said “we need to verified your identity. As soon as I hungup the phone I received an email saying my account is been suspended. I call again asking if buying 12.00 in groceries is suspicious since I had not use my card for a few weeks. Nobody answer me.
This is a CP of the email.
Hello XXXXXX XXXXXX,

During a recent review, we noticed irregular activity on your Bluebird Account. For your security and protection, some of the features on your Bluebird Account have been suspended while we conduct further investigation.

In order to restore these account features, please help us verify your identity by sending a readable copy of the following document within ten days of the date on this email:

• Picture ID:

· A valid driver’s license card OR

· A valid state issued ID OR

· A valid Government ID Card (e.g. Green Card) OR

· A valid United States Passport

In order to process your documents more efficiently please include the phone number or email address used to apply for your Bluebird Account.

For your convenience, this document can be sent in one of the following three ways:

Email:

Email your documents with American Express Encrypted Email, a secure email service which protects the documents you send, by following these steps:

1. Click here and sign in using your email address

2. Fill out the registration form to create your encrypted email ID

3. Click the link in the email you receive to your registered email address

4. Send your documents ONLY through the American Express Encrypted Email site. Enter Bluebird.securemail@aexp.com in the “To:” section on the site.

I am at my wit’s end with the Bluebird card!!!! I got it when it first came out and it was great – I could pay all my bills at one shot, load prepaid cards and gift cards easily, and move my cash with the Skymiles debit card and earn miles.

However, in November I noticed some of my bills weren’t paid, including my mortgage. Turns out a “glitch” in the system kicked out addresses with PO Box numbers (most of my bills).

Then, the past month I noticed I have to pay my bills ONE AT A TIME, just like authorizing one of their prepaid checks. And THEN, I noticed that after I set up payments with my major creditors, it would not ‘go through”. It just stays at the “review.”

After trying to deal with foreign CS people who couldn’t understand my dilemma, I got an American who said that there was a “problem with the system” and to use the mobile app on my phone. This “system problem” has been going on for over a month – with a company as large as Amex, really? On top of that, my Windows smart phone won’t download the app, so where am I left?

Today I went to load 2 gift cards – the cashier wouldn’t let me, saying “I exceeded my limit with prepaid cards.” I’ve never loaded a prepaid card this month!!! So I tried to transfer money via my Suntrust and they asked for my ID. This has never happened!!

Tried to get in touch with a supervisor and was cut off. Any other ideas how to deal with this mess??

Ernest, I appreciate your post; the only thing I know to do next is to call Account Protection Services and see if they can tell me what’s up.

Ernest, since you wrote this a while ago, I’m not sure how you were able to resolve things but that email you received seems suspicious to me for several reasons:

1. Signing up for the original card does not require picture ID so why would it be required now?

2. All the info requested is just what would be needed to steal your identity.

3. Sending the documents through a site that bypasses logging into your account via the secure Bluebird site is unusual.

4. The email address given for submitting the documents does not comply with the way American Express uses it name on websites. It’s always “americanexpress” spelled out like that. In common use (but not by American Express that I’ve seen so far) it’s abbreviated “amex” NOT “aexp” as is done in the email.

It may be too late for you to do but for anyone else who encounters a similar situation I would recommend reporting the email to American Express Customer Service using the number on the back of your card or going to their fraud protection website and using the “Report a Suspicious Email” option. That site address is here: http://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/fraud-protection-center.html

I developed a hankering for road kill and common field weeds as a result of not being able to access my hard earned money for a week and a half becuase I entrusted it to this card. So I only tolerate it becuase I have to, when I place orders online it often charges double. This gets reset 7 days later but when it shows you as being in overdraft your money is locked up for the next full 7 to 10 days and there is no way to get it reset sooner, I found this out the hard way. I typically only use mine for online purchases, and most stores won’t accept it. So if you are getting one and plan to use it anywhere other than WalMart or online, only put what you need on it carry the rest as cash. Who knows maybe it’s part of AE’s plan to prepare their customers for SHTF situations by suddenly locking them out of their source of money.

I bought this account and love it. I use it because I didn’t want to deal with my bank anymore. I primarily use cash and only use my debit card for my bills that I can’t pay in cash. This is almost completely like having a checking account except you don’t have to worry about overdraft fees. You actually have to pre-authorize the checks or they are not usable. Which is great, you pre-authorize the check, the money is pulled aside. It’s great! I write a check, get it pre-authorize, give it to my landlord. No worrying about the check bouncing or something coming out before the check clears. I have only had to call customer service one time, yeah, they are in India, but they got what I needed done. My only gripe is that you can’t use the card at the pump, which is fine, I just go in and pay for it. No biggie. But other than that, I love mine.

I have had the Bluebird card for about a year. I got one because I wanted to buy stuff online and buy movies and books for my Kindle and didn’t want to use my debit card. ( We had our info stolen before while using a debit card to buy online) It is more for my protection than anything else. I haver never had any problems with it except its hard to log in sometimes online.

So just for anyone interested in the American Express Bluebird cards for $5 you
might want to know:

A. you have to be 18 to register the card.
B. you can only have one bluebird card/account per ss #.
C. up to 4 sub accounts can be added as long as the person(s) is over the age of
13.

This info is not on the box so we didn’t know and bought 5 of them!!!
One for ourselves and our 2 children and one for vacation. What a great thing (we thought) to keep birthday/christmas/allowances separate. Also, this way our 11 yr old could make purchases online (like poptropica and minecraft) without using our debit card. We can only register 2 of them though!! So now what???

Their customer service stinks. I was put on hold for 10min then my call was disconnected when the lady tried to pick up. I called back and again I was put on hold. I made it to about 10min again and my phone started dying so i again was disconnected (my fault this time). I called back for a 3rd time and was put on hold for 30 min before the supervisor picked up. I could not understand a word he was saying and he put me on HOLD again 2 more times getting his headset to work. Finally, when we could communicate he tells me sorry you are just out the $5 you spent on each card but you can use them in stores without registering them they just can’t be reloaded or he can issue me a refund for the balance on the cards but not the $5 card fee. This will take 7-10 business days to get. Over an hour later and we are definitely not satisfied:\

You are only allowed one card per social security number. I learned this only after I had purchased a second one at wally-world today and I could not register it. While the folks in India were happy to close the account and send back the money I loaded on to it they refused to refund the purchase price. NO WHERE in or on the package does it state only one card per person! they hung up on me when i asked to speak with a manager.

why would anyone blindly purchase 5 of anything without first determining whether the first one was a good purchase? Do your children not have their own social security numbers? So, you would be out the purchase price of the “vacation” card. But you seem to be oblivious of the fact that you must be 18 years old to have a credit/debit card. Not only Bluebird, but any debit/credit card. Are your children of legal age? Although you question the labeling of the package in not pointing out that each person can only have one card, my question would be, why would anyone need more than one?

Sarah November 20, 2013 at 12:26AM

I use this account so I can send my disabled father money. I added money a few days ago and took it out of my bank account but is not availible in my account. I called them today because every other time it was availible immediately and when I did talk to someone it sounded like they were from India that I couldn’t understand. I tried to explain what was happening but he never asked for my account info just said they were having technical problem and not sure when it would be fix. I don’t except difficulties for days. I need to have access to my money and considering once my father can withdraw the recently add money, discontinuing my use of the bluebird card.

I’ve had my card for about a year now and I am a very financially responsible individual, so don’t stereotype those people using these cards. I happened to move 2 1/2 hours from the credit union I’ve used and rather than open another account, I opted for this card for the ease of it. I can transfer money to my account if I want. I had set up sub accounts but see that those will be gone? Anyway …. don’t think for a minute that just because someone carries one of these BB cards that they’re deadbeats.

deserves it. Every check I “pre-authorized” was declined by the bank, a third of the merchants I went to didn’t take American Express, a third had the card decline, and the other third probably didn’t deserve my patronage anyway. After my rent check was declined I went to withdraw it from an ATM so I could buy a money order. Although the card says can withdraw $1000 a day from the ATM, I can’t. I could only get $500, so I had to go back the next day and get the rest of it. At time, I just put the rest on my Walmart card and called it good. Oh, and changed my direct deposit back to my Walmart card. Seriously? I mean, for real, seriously?

This doesn’t make any sense. I’ve been using this card to pay bills for several months and never had a problem. I pay my rent, car and some loans with it. Not one has ever been rejected. Not all merchants take Amex, but seriously a third declined it? I find a lot of this hard to believe.

I’ve been using mine for a year and I have never had a problem, other than some merchants don’t take American Express…period, not just the Bluebird card.

Victoria January 28, 2014 at 1:03PM

The reason you could only withdraw $500 from the ATM is because many ATMs limit withdrawals, too. Try using a different ATM next time, or an ATM on a different network.

My business account allows $1500 in ATM withdrawals per day, but using a Suntrust ATM I can only withdraw $400, while using the ATM at Circle K allows $200, and the one at another bank allows $300. In other words, it depend on the ATM you use, too.

No matter what the pros or cons are, the stigma will still exist when merchants see the Bluebird logo on these cards. (By stigma I mean this card is for poor credit folks or scammers; whether true or not)

“You’re probably using this card because you have bad credit, are reported in Chex Systems (overdrafted your previous bank accounts and were unable to repay your obilgation to said bank/financial institution), or have burned your bridges (commited an act of fraud or theft of some kind) with a bank in the US within the last 10 years, right? ”

NO! I’m a CEO for a small chemical company which does five to ten million in business annually. My reason for using this card is to restrict access to my main business bank accounts from a vender that only allows their bills to be paid through automatic bank or credit card drafts. In the past, we have seen mistakes where several hundred thousand has been accidentally withdrawn from a account by a miss-typed automatic withdrawal by a vendor, so we no longer allow automatic withdraws from our bank accounts under any circumstances.

I needed a pre-paid card to allow automatic withdrawals from a pre-paid BYOD cell phone service provider, which would save a branch office approximately $10,000/yr per 20 phones/tablets over what Verizon, ATT, etc were offering. I’m also attempting to simultaneously test a branch transition to tablets for salesmen commission tracking, invoicing and inventory control.
Because of the tremendous hassle getting the card registered and getting all services active, I’ve now waited over three months before the “testing” could start, with thousands of dollars in tablets and cell phones sitting in a box at the branch waiting in limbo.

Different people have different reasons for wanting a no fee pre-paid card. With this card, the reason doesn’t matter, what matters is that the card really does suck. I’ve never in my life experienced any other major credit card company behave so badly.

I purchased a card at Wal-Mart, activated it and have not had any trouble with uploading cash via transactions at Wal-Mart checkout or depositing checks. The account does hold the check for a inordinate amount of time, but the sole purpose I signed up for the card is to have a source of money that is not connected in any way to other accounts that I have. I use this card for online purchases and to fuel my GooglePlay account. Seems to work. I’ve also taken advantage of sub-account to provide a clothing budget for my offspring. So far, so good. However, I got notice from BB last week that sub-accounts were being phased out. We shall see if I read the letter correctly. I don’t think this is a good alternative to a proper checking account, but it works fine for my purposes.

I ordered this card around June 2013 to pay bills as my current bank has too many fees to pay my bills with. I setup my accounts online, paid most of my bills with no problems and loading funds to the card was easy to do for about three month then I was unable to load any funds on the card at WalMart.

WalMart could not solve the problem after several attempts to load funds to the card. So I just spent what I had left on the card and canceled it. This card is just too much of a hassle and not worth it just to pay a few bills with it.

I work for a large bank and ordered this card to give to my irresponsible brother so that I could provide him additional funds, as needed from a distance (we live in different states and he often needs financial assistance). I was also drawn in by the fact that it has no ties to my credit score, cannot be overdrafted, and that it offered online access to check balances, etc. What I’ve learned through my experiences thus far, with Bluebird, is that it is geared toward the “Wal-Mart” demographic. Individuals who have made some questionable financial decisions in their lives that no longer allow them to have access to traditional banking products. You know who you are.

You’re probably using this card because you have bad credit, are reported in Chex Systems (overdrafted your previous bank accounts and were unable to repay your obilgation to said bank/financial institution), or have burned your bridges (commited an act of fraud or theft of some kind) with a bank in the US within the last 10 years, right?

You thought you could get around having to answer to the music of your past mistakes by ordering this nifty little card that promises “no fees” , “direct deposit” , and the ability to use it “almost anywhere”, still sounding familiar? WAKE UP.

This card is NOT a checking account, or even a “bank” account of any kind. Stop expecting it to be usable in the same manner as a normal debit card. First of all, it’s an American Express PREPAID card. Anyone who actually has an AMEX credit card knows that roughly 60% of merchants do not accept anything with an AMEX logo (be it a credit card, prepaid debit card, or these Bluebird Cards) on it.

Second, the holds, locks, freezes, and no cash back options others have complained about here are set in place to conduct financial transactions with high risk individuals such as yourselves legally, and with some caution. Holds are placed on some deposits made to your card because the funds need to be verified. WHY? I think you know the answer..Its because you have taken advantage of immediate postings in the past (be real, if you hadn’t done so, you’d still have your REAL checking account). The locks and freezes when attempting to transfer from other people’s debit cards/bank accounts (that you are not AN AUTHORIZED SIGNER/CO-OWNER OF) are actually Federally Regulated stipulations that are mandated by the Federal Reserve. They protect against money laundering and illegal activities related to the electronic transactions Bluebird customers engage in. Again, you are dealing with these tightened restraints because you weren’t responsible enough to handle an actual bank account. You’ve lost your right to have a REAL bank account, the only person you should be blaming is yourself. I’ve heard every story in the book about how it was SOMEONE else’s fault that they ended up in a financial pickle. It all comes back to you, OWN IT.

A REAL bank has the ability to make special dispensation for those who demonstrate an ability to not overdraft their accounts, have overdraft protection accounts in place should they make an HONEST mistake, and for those individuals who have more “business” (I.e. large amounts of cash on deposit, multiple accounts such as a mortgage, credit card, car loan/lease) with said bank/financial institution. For example because I have my mortgage, my car loan, and a credit card, checking and savings account with my bank, they do not place holds on even large, out of state, deposit items (including checks and direct deposits). If you don’t have a REAL bank account, then don’t expect to have the same features as a REAL bank account. You’ve already proven you cannot be trusted financially so why would American Express/Bluebird go out on a limb for someone who has made unethical, deliberate, and poor choices when it comes to money? Sorry about your life… But you are in this situation because of you, and you didnt handle your affairs like an adult. OWN IT.

This card works for one thing and one thing only. I put money onto the card, my brother visits an ATM in his city and withdraws it. Guess what people? He can relate… He’s one of you. He complains about it not working at the gas station to buy his cigarettes, he complains that his disability check can’t be direct deposited, and he complains that his 6th girlfriend this year can’t link her food stamp card to it and transfer money over. Think about how foolish you all sound complaining about this card. My brother sounds foolish, and he is just that, a fool. Not all of you are so lucky to have an older brother to help you pay your bills. In that case, pay your bils, get a REAL bank account, and take accountability.

If you’re unable to take care of your financial affairs then this is the option available to you. Be happy and grateful that there even is an option. The advertising makes no false claims, and you’ll find that if you’re being HONEST with yourself that KARMA comes round and round and round. So please, do us all a favor and get it together. If you can’t get a bank account, you’re a a mess.

You sir are a very unprofessional “underwriter” and don’t understand the slightest bit of professionalism. I have been at this bank for many years and worked my way to where I am today, and to this day have never put these folks down or anybody else for that fact. I can’t believe you actually got a job at a bank with that attitude.

You know who were the most irresponsible people in the world during the past 12 years? Large Bank Underwriters as evident by their toxic approvals. Please spare the condescending attitude, superior responsibility game, and troll elsewhere. The public citizen bailed your employers out or you would not even have a job. You probably shouldn’t have one anyhow if there was justice in the world. Alas, there is none when it comes to grand theft by you and your ilk. Enjoy the commission.

Hi “Large Bank Underwriter”, I hope you’re having a great day. I know it’s a hard job continually destroying the economy, and peoples lives, day-in and day-out. So you must be tired. You see, your horrible decisions are the very reason why people need these cards. You see, we are in an economic depression. Not a recession. A depression. The reason for this is largely due to arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic people like yourselves, who only see $$$$$$$$$. This economic situation was largely created by you greedy people who have underwritten loans that you well knew people couldn’t pay back after a certain amount of time. Of course, you didn’t tell them this. What did you do? You buried it in the hundreds of pages of fine print, in a language that only a legal professional could understand. I, sir, think that it’s very irresponsible of you and your banking brethren to do this to people. THAT’S why a lot of these people are in a position to need a card such as this.

Now, what happens when people can’t pay their mortgages, the economy tanks, jobs become scarce, wages are at all time lows, and people are continually laid-off or fired for simply walking the wrong way while on the job? You guessed it! The workers now need to use their credit cards to pay for NECESSITIES. NECESSITIES, you know, because the last time I checked, food isn’t free. It isn’t because the majority of people are irresponsible, you half-wit.

I hope you find yourself unemployed in the near future, you sadistic piece of excrement. YOU are the reason this economy is the way it is. It’s a well placed trap that was set some 25-30 years ago. A trap that was set to keep people enslaved in debt. And don’t even get me started on student loans, which is the other reason most people need to file bankruptcy.

P.S. I wouldn’t be too arrogant if I were you. Most companies cut underwriters like thin paper with sharp scissors. KARMA is on its way for you. Remember, you’re easily replaceable. Especially in this economy.

Nice Post. The underwriter is an idiot. PERIOD!!! I worked for a bank for 20 years and do no agree with his/her comments.

Castrella, PhD October 23, 2013 at 10:50PM

I find it to be interesting that you relate your anger and judgement of your brother to all of the customers with bluebird. Arrogance and ill will are not a charming trait. My daughter has this card and she is in high school. I got it for her so that if there are any emergencies during her extra activity trips, she will have security. Along with cash. I say all this to make a point that all people do not fall into the category of your hateful description. It is a blessing that you still have your job while others suffered through the recession and some cannot afford monthly fees. Practice humility and compassion. I challenge you. Your life can be like your brothers in a moment. Be grateful you can help him and still live comfortably. Peace to you.

I am most certainly not one of your irresponsible, financially illiterate, and I am not one of your lazy jerks who want to sit around all day wanting to get paid and not wanting to work. THERE ARE RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES WHICH DISCUSS USURY and advising against loans, credit cards, and mortgages with COMPOUNDING INTEREST RATES. So for the many of us, Coptic Christians, Muslims, and others who WANT TO PRACTICE AND FOLLOW OUR RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS, and who CANNOT FIND ANY BANKING INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA offering RELIGIOUS COMPLIANT SERVICES, this may just very well be the a non-interest bearing, non-interest compounding alternative for those trying to live by their religious values which basically teach do not live beyond your means. Do not enslave people with compounding interest on loans they will never be able to repay in a short period of time. This is why our nation has been submitted to an economic credit crisis due to the lending practices of this nation, and the lost moral and religious values regarding financial responsibility. The fact I learned children are not being taught how to budget, not being taught about how credit cards work, are not being taught loans, and are not being taught LIFE SKILLS, is HIGHLY DISTURBING! I certainly will be teaching my child and future children at home if it won’t be re-enforced in schools. The LAST THING he needs to do in his life is to be financially illiterate. We will be living our religious teachings and hopefully steer clear of any future issues of any nation. We buy a pure gold coin every year, and that is for what reason? Emergency savings. And we save as well. As far as my American Express prepaid card, it was very nice to have it while traveling abroad and very convenient.

Sorry Dude, but I have the BB card because the banks failed me not because I was foolish and irresponsible. I am ill and don’t have enough funds to pay the exorbitant fees associated with a banking account. I am housebound and they insist on my presence at their business place if special circumstances arise. This card does what I need it to do: pay my rent on it and utilities. Your brother seems to have made you bitter and you have grouped the rest of us in with your prevailing attitude. BB is not just for deadbeats but for those who need a simpler way to pay bills.

american express failed me ,when i needed them they didnt want me I wont forget.

mdage 59

Robert Starcher December 29, 2013 at 11:30AM

I don’t believe you are with a bank at all, even with the underwriter attitude you have. Your opinions are foolish. And you would be a bigger fool to mingle with people like us. We are after your bank and all of it’s crooked employees. It’s only a matter of time before all of the US citizens give the “bank” a good old fashioned tea party. Enjoy your pitiful existence while you still can. By the way, after 2 years I have had NO issues with BB. I put money in and get it back when I want it. Can’t say that for any bank that I know of.

You do realize the card is being locked now because of 2014 U.S. regulations and the fact it is uninsured. Some people are using this online and bill paying to keep the thieves from getting into their bank accounts. Now I see Amex wants into mine. They locked my card and now want me to link my bank account to get to the money I have on it. Funny how thieves always come up with a new way to get to your bank. Keep the 10 bucks Amex you’re not getting my account info!!

Glad you identified yourself as a Bank employee as it explains a lot. You operate from a false assumption. You have generalized everyone that chooses prepaid financial tools into a Criminal element. Only someone that works for a Industry that bilks $ billions in penalties and fees would think that. The US Gov’t had to actually pass more legislation to curb your Gangster tactics. Banks response to that was to put more “rules” on who is allowed to have a simple checking account free of fees.. You need to own up to the Fact that millions of us recognize the scams that Banks have run unchecked for the last 50 years.. So stop criticizing others and go get a Real Job

ummm…Wow…bitter much? I I have a checking account, and a savings account and a 401k…and a credit card and a job…and I pay my bills..but I thought this might be a safe way to shop online. But enough about me…Why do enable your brother to be irresponsible and then whine about it. I think that your brother isn’t the fool YOU are…after all he got you to give him money and pay for his cigarettes…. maybe you should take the money you have been spending on him and take a vacation to chill out ….better yet..see a shrink.

“You’re probably using this card because you have bad credit, are reported in Chex Systems (overdrafted your previous bank accounts and were unable to repay your obilgation to said bank/financial institution), or have burned your bridges (commited an act of fraud or theft of some kind) with a bank in the US within the last 10 years, right?”

No. I have subcontractors performing inspection services for me in four US States and two Mexican ones. Some of them have regular bank accounts, some don’t. Also, I sometimes have to pay fees they incur, especially in Mexico, up front.

Used ‘strictly’ in accordance with their own rules Bluebird should be ideal. In reality, every couple of months at least there’s some issue or another. Last month, one of my regulars was owed $800. I went to Walmart, put the money on his card, just as you say you do for your brother,and he went to the Walmart near him to withdraw it. Account was locked. Why? “Suspicious use”. What was suspicious? That he never buys anything with it. Every time I load it, he goes to an ATM and empties it.

This would be a perfectly fine product, if not for the random roadblocks they throw up for no apparent reason.

To the above person who thinks he is “better than everyone else” because he has a “REAL” bank account, and thinks that everyone that uses this card is a deadbeat criminal who is poor and abused the system, I think you need to see a therapist for your issues with your poor little brother who you keep enabling by sending him money. Your responses and your crazy talk seems like displaced anger. Did anyone ever tell you that sometimes being the enabler is worse than the person YOU are enabling? It’s funny how you think no one can get a bank account, and we are all poor. I have to tell you that you are so very wrong, yes, you, the one who thinks he is better than all of us on here that are giving our feedback of a prepaid card, so that it may HELP people when making the decision whether or not to buy it. I myself, along with many, many others who have this card, have no such financial problem that you speak of. I have two checking accounts with very reputable banks, one of them being chase, along with a business checking account because I own my own online consulting business and make a heck of a lot more money than some “LARGE BANK UNDERWRITER”. I have a very high credit score, pay all my bills on time, and have a masters degree from UC Berkeley in Forensic Science. As a lot of people on here said, we have our reasons for wanting a prepaid card that was free of fees!!! again, FREE OF FEES!!!!! Especially when this prepaid card is used as a tool to help my teenage children manage money properly, along with having a daily spending limit, and free cash loading should they get in a bind somewhere and need emergency funds from their parents. So I will stress this to you again…PLEASE STOP DISPLACING YOUR ANGER YOU HAVE TOWARDS YOUR DEADBEAT BROTHER, TO HARD WORKING, RESPONSIBLE, AND INTELLIGENT PEOPLE THAT MAKE A DECISION TO USE THIS PARTICULAR PREPAID CARD FOR REASONS THAT ARE COMPLETELY OPPOSITE THOSE YOU STATED, AND FOR REASONS YOU NEED NOT UNDERSTAND BECAUSE IT IS NON OF YOU DAMN BUSINESS!!!

You left off that some people want something for free. I do have a friend with a checking/savings account and great credit. But she saw the double your money offer with Wal-mart and applied for one. It doubled her money and she got the card, but it would reject every time she tried to use it. And like others, they now want picture ‘ID’ sent along with all the other back-up. Also was not able to seak with anyone that could speak clearly. Personally I would never sign up if they wanted my ss# and had no local office…. I give nothing like that on line… And I do feel this opens up for identity theft. My advice to my friend is cut your losses, lesson learned. There is nothing free in this world, sadly she is not listening and may just send her info…..Crazy….people never learn…. Even friends…

Very upset with Bluebird and how it has (not) worked. After several attempts to verify my bank online unsuccessfully (I have no idea why)- I made a trip to my local Walmart Money Store. I used my debit card to load $500 onto the card. The amount cleared my account the next business day and showed up on the Bluebird account. The following business day I was called and informed the funding could not be verified and hence we have a hold on our account. I requested my money back immediately; I immediately received an email stating they had closed my account due to funding fraud! I called my bank and am trying to resolve the issue through them instead to get my money back. Very disappointed and frustrated.

Is it just me or can anyone else, including AmEx, see a serious problem with “out-of-the-country,” outside of the U.S.A. jurisdiction, “out-sourced” customer reps asking Americans for “FAXED COPIES” of their driver’s license, passport, Social Security card, etc.??? I am shocked and horrified that we are allowing this to happen. All startup information should already be in the system for the customer reps to answer all questions in a professional and intelligent manner. My bank(s) has “NEVER EVER” asked me to fax a copy of my identification, Social Security card, driver’s license, passport, etc. This is all done once only in person. Blue Bird is set up online and done. There should never be a need to fax copies of the above personal information; and overseas!?! No way is this going to turn out good for these poor, hardworking American customers. This cannot be happening in this day and age with so many rules of protecting our self from id fraud. God help each of you through this…

Wells Fargo, US Bank, and Bank of America ALL have off shore (overseas), credit, underwriting, and customer service divisions. It’s not just your financial and personal information they are sending to India. It’s your jobs too. Read before you speak.

So unhappy with Bluebird!!! Set up my account about six months ago and only really used it a few times after linking to another debit card. Suddenly I wasn’t able to transfer money to this card from my linked debit card, just got an error message. Tried to log in to my account a few days later and it is LOCKED! Called customer service and was told I had to speak with their “Account Protection” department. What a joke. This guy sounded like he had the mental capacity of a ten year old! It took over 10 minutes for him to explain to me that they need me to fax my social security card and driver’s license to them in order to verify my identity! That was after he argued with me over the phone number I listed on the account. I think I know my own phone number! He actually said “since I can’t really understood you” while I repeated my phone number over and over again Why didn’t they ask for this I.D. verification as soon as I signed up for the card and not months later after I had already been using it! So I am supposed to fax my personal documents to them and trust that they will be reviewed securely? After speaking with some totally inept customer service rep….right….
Done with this card. I will gladly forfeit the $17.00 I had on the card so that I don’t ever have to deal with them again. Ughl. Disgusting.

Nasty little card! You can add funds form your bank, but you cant use them! They keep them for 5 business days.(If your money goes in on any day after Monday add 2 more days to the total for which you can’t sue it!) Which means THEY get to use YOUR MONEY FREE and EARN dividends on it but YOU CANT! 100s of people adding money from their bank accounts, say at $30.00 each. Let’s just say 100,000 people add $30.00 in funds from their banks on the same day. That’s 3 million bucks of “customer money” AMEX Bluebird gets to USE for 5 & really) DAYS FREE OF CHARGE that the customers can’t touch or make any money on! When your money is put into an interest bearing account the interest earned is supposed to be earned BY YOU!
AMEX Bluebird gets thumbs DOWN for being a crappy card!

I’ll start with the basics, support is outsourced which means the language and accent gap make communication difficult. Thus Walmart and American Express’ effort at ‘Customer Service’ is nominal at best.

The Card itself, in regards to reliability, is far from consistent. It either works or it doesn’t. You either lucky to not have to re-verify your information or you have to (which requires valid ID and a SSN). Honestly, when you need it to work most, it simply doesn’t. Consistency is horrendous.

If you plan to make online purchases only, go for it. It works as a decent security gap between using your own credit card and having a malicious person siphon your account.

Other than that, to advertise this card as a means to utilize a credit line is false advertising. It does but the complications are many and almost makes this product unusable.

I’m shocked at all of the terrible reviews on this card, I have nothing but positive things to say. Now, I don’t use it for depositing checks or anything, just simple cash reloads when I want to purchase something online and I just use cash every where else. Its been convenient and reliable these last couple months that I’ve had it. I’m happy I found it and they just added a Set Aside option to help save and its super easy to add or transfer money from that account. All in all I love it!

I called the BlueBird number about the sleazy QuiBids who sneakily took $60 from my account w/out telling me so on the Quibids website. The BlueBird number would not RING! I tried emailing Walmart corporate. The online form would not progress when clicking on “Next.” I emailed Walmart.com asking for help contacting corporate and BlueBird. Nobody repled, but 12 hours later, the corporate email online form worked but still no responce from corporate. The next day, the BlueBird number rang and did a very long recording w/my having to wait a long time for the option I needed then to wait AGAIN to speak to a person. The person was not USA-American & was difficult to understand. Finally, the rep found that Quibds had indeed refunded my money altho’ it showed up in no way on my account not even as pending. I must wait 8 days for the refund to be in my account!!! WHY? And WHY is there NOT an email option for contacting an online company? I wouldn’t depend fully on BlueBird. It’s fine w/Ebay & Paypal, but WalMart & American Express are NOT offering Quality service for this card! BEWARE! Proceed with CAUTION!

Please have some dignity and get a REAL checking account seperate from your main checking account for online purchases. Hiding behind the fact that you use it for identity theft protection is BS. You provided your address, name, social security number, date of birth, and other details to obtain this card, they are just as easily hacked if not more susceptible to fraud that a REAL bank’s debit card. Nice try tho….. lol

Not very happy with BB/AmEx card. First American Express is NOT accepted at a lot places. Second if you want to deposit a check it can NOT be a personal check written to you and when its a company generated check you have to make several attempts for it to “deposit”-which then takes 6 days to clear. Third…and my favorite!! The “bank” has technical difficulty and becomes “unavailable” and of course its when you’re checking out or paying for your food! Nightmare!!!! Hate BB!

I’ve had this card for going on two months now…haven’t had too many problems with it, other than issues with the “holds” they use on gas purchases and declined transactions….usually I have to wait 3-5 days (depending on if its a weekend) to have the money released. I was REALLY dissatisfied with how they do the checking-to-card transfers, (if I have to wait five days, why am I being charged immediately?) so I think I’ll stick to my original method of just loading it up with cash.

They won’t refund my money. They won’t approve my account. They want a copy of my Social Security Card and Driver’s License or Passport. They are also saying my address isn’t valid, so they can’t send me a check.

It is easy to load the card at Walmart, but you cannot get the cash back.
even though they advertise you can withdraw at Walmart or an approved ATM.
Exasperated with the card I tried to cancel and have them send me a check
for the ballance.
Customer service said I had to spend down the balance to cancel he card.
Worst card in my wallet.

DO NOT GET!!! Not only do you have to send a copy of your ID and SS card to the company but you it takes 7 to 10 business days for your account to be activated, you can use the card only for purchases, no ATM withdraws.
I was also charged for using the Wal Mart ATM although it is listed on the Website as a money pass location.

My situation is disturbing yet interesting. My teenage son and I bought a car the same day, he loaded is two week check, I just loaded 60.00,as I had a feeling to wait and see. I wasn’t able to register my account online thru bluebird.com, yet he had no problem. My sons card came within a week, i’m still unable to register my account, no card for me. This is what’s disturbing, someone called me from bluebird(said unknown caller) asked to verify my name, last digits of my social, and birth date. I was told that I would be sent a email to complete the registration. That was two weeks ago, I have now had the card three weeks and nothing.My attempt to use customer service number failed. My son had no trouble and I got the runaround. Is it possible that they are running credit checks and keeping it on the downlow? Strange. MY son sent me money from his card and finally a email popped up the same day he sent saying I failed registration. There is something strangely wicked about this card.

Large Bank Underwriter:
By underwriter, do you mean a janitor at the large bank? You did not disclose that you also were an English professor.
Do YOURSELF a favor and please stop posting nonsense replies to the people who are actually trying to get some feedback on this card. You are only making yourself look ignorant and miserable. I’m very sure you spend 18 hours of your day playing xbox in your mother’s basement, have never had a love life, and contemplate the meaning of your meaningless existence almost hourly.
This is not a website to “bully” people. But I do have one question… when you said your “brother” … I can almost guarantee that “you” = your mom and your “brother” = you. So what you meant to say was that your mother has to load money onto her card for you because you often are in need of financial assistance, right?
Grow up and go back to your world of warcraft.

James November 6, 2013 at 7:49AM

Let me educate you here. For one I reload my card at WalMart for FREE. There is no load fees as long as you do it at at any Walmart register. As falsely reported above, Bluebird is now insured thru FDIC. Yes you can write checks with your bluebird account. All you have to do is preauthorize the check online and write the authorization number on the front of your check, the funds are debited from your available balance to pay the check when it gets presented. Lastly, not everyone who uses a bluebird has ‘burned’ their bridges or has outstanding debts due to banks. For some, such as myself, personally hate banks and live the cash only lifestyle as much as possible. Cash my check at walmart and only use bluebird for the 1 or 2 things that are much easier to pay by card. WHY, should I or anyone else pay $10+ to cash a payroll check at a traditional bank just because we don’t have an account?? Even when the check is drawn on their freakin bank. No worries, walmart will do it for $3. I hope you don’t fall off that high horse you have put yourself on, your not all that.

Jennifer February 21, 2014 at 12:24PM

If you are going to try to make someone else look uneducated, maybe make sure your grammar is correct—it’s getting not gettin…..for such a busy job that you have, you sure do find time to harass everyone on here. I have a good suspicion you aren’t an underwrite at all, instead you are someone who just gets a kick out of using larger words to try and make others feel like they are beneath you. I am sure you are doing this from your parents’ basement. People of higher education and higher status do not waste their time conversing with people they seem to hate and look down upon. You sir (or ma’am), are nothing more than someone who feels really down about their own situation, and feel a little better about being you by picking on others.These people aren’t the pathetic ones, YOU ARE.

Toni August 3, 2013 at 7:07PM

I should’ve known anything associated with Walmart was a bad idea! This card has been nothing but a Royal POA. they sell it to you as an alternative checking account, but it is nothing but a prepaid debit card. Unfortunately, it’s not even that! You cannot use it as a debit card. The only time the pin function works is to draw cash out of an ATM. Charges can only be run as a credit transaction, and unfortunately, there are many places that do not accept American Express. Further, there are several places that will only accept debit. One should be able to access their funds using a pin number with this card but we can’t! We have also had issues making deposits. We have gone to places, including Walmart, that according to the website had an ATM that accepted deposits and found that that ATM did not exist at that location. We have tried to use the smart phone and and make deposits by uploading a picture, but the app has crashed three of our smart phones and does not work. Nor is there an option to scan the check and upload it with your computer. This card is completely lacking in options and service and unfortunately since it is an American Express card which is not accepted everywhere is no longer useful to us. We have changed our direct deposit and will no longer be using the bluebird card.

The using as a debit at the register is not a big deal for some, especially with so many money pass atms around. What’s really a strong point about the card, is its checking account features. You don’t have to worry about surprises, or forgetting to deduct a fee or something that could cause an overdraft condition. This is great if you are in positions sometimes to let any of your checking accounts operate with the debits being close in amount to the total deposits. Plus, the checking feature adds an extra layer of security…loose the check book, it is safe and useless to the finder or thief because of the wonderful pre-authorization feature.

This is the worst card ever!!!!!!!! I have direct deposit and they have screwed me out of my money. They said someone put in the wrong password too many times(which has supposedly happened 4 times now) so they locked my account on the day that I get my direct deposit(which is a friday) so I didn’t get my money. They said it will take 3 business day before they even send my money back to my employer so that my employer can send it back to them to re-direct deposit it. It cast me $20 a day to go to and from work. I was depending on that money for gas, food,bills,etc… Called them and they said there was nothing they could do about it. I have family that is going without now because of this nonsense. It doesn’t if someone tried to get into my, thats why I have a password. Why stop a direct deposit. I can understand holding the money but this is so very wrong that they would have to wait three days to even send my money back to my employer. I don’t have enough money for gas to even get to work!!!! If it wasn’t for my in-laws I would be totally screwed. BLUEBIRD IS A TERRIBLE COMPANY!!! I WANT TO TAKE THIS COMPANY DOWN PLEASE IF ANYONE CAN HELP ME DO SO LET ME KNOW. And by the way I couldn’t find them on the BBB.

I read alot of NEGATIVE reviews about this card and for sure not very pleased about it. But I kinda have of GOOD USE for BlueBird card. I save cash once in awhile (out of my wife’s knowledge) and I love to buy online/web purchases so I reload the card at WALMART (no fees) for the exact amount I will be paying and keep it ZERO BALANCE all time until I am ready to use it. If just in case something happened I don’t have to worry of losing money. What I am worried about is the Social Security Number requirement when you register online otherwise it’s a good MONEY LAUNDRYING device.

As an alternative to a traditional checking account I can see this as an OKAY alternative. It is by no means ideal. There is definately some glaring issues that really make me regret starting the card. 1-I previously had my funds available from a direct deposit on around midnight as soon as the day hit. Now I have to wait until sometime mid morning to get them. 2-I feel like they are very sketchy about their no fees disclaimer..yeah not when they charge my $2 for everytime I get money out. So much for no fees.3-And to top it all off…and this issue REALLY REALLY pissed me off…I can only take out $2000 a month in cash. Are you kidding me?? I have the cash available I should be able to have access to it..and sometimes you just have to get cash for things. In my case this really is big issue as I take almost $1000 right at the beginning of the month to pay my rent. Sure I can use my card to pay it online but I really dont want to pay an additional $40 to do so that my complex charges. I cant right a check for it because their “checks” arent always accepted. Definately need to find something that suits my needs better.

I’ve had no problems with Bluebird but know exactly how to use and how not to use it. For getting gas, always go inside and pay and always a specific amount not “filler up”.

I don’t use it at ATM’s, but if you want to avoid the ATM fee, just get cash back when you use it at Walmart and other businesses that give cash back. You avoid the ATM fee.

Works very well with online places that take AMEX like Amazon and Southwest Airlines and JetBlue had no problem with the card.

I don’t have direct deposit on the card nor do I keep a large balance, I use a regular savings account for my direct deposit, and just withdraw money and place it on the card. I know this is an extra step but it’s how I’ve been doing it.

The one downside is it is an AMEX card, and a lot of places, especially small businesses won’t accept it.

This card is useless & the customer service is horrible. My husband is an OTR truck driver who is gone 3-4 weeks at a time. His employer is based out of one state & we live in a different state, very typical for truck drivers. We got the card to transfer money on when he is out on the road, he has a bank account set up in the town by his work hub for convenience, when we tried to transfer money from the checking acct. (work state) to the card (home state) nothing but drama followed. They froze the card and made us FAX copies of driver licence, ss cards, bank statement & even dh’s passport for extra verification. THIS WAS NOT ENOUGH, they said they still couldn’t verify he was who he said he was, because of two addresses in two states, SERIOUSLY this is a debit account not a credit card, they are not loaning us a dime, just us putting cash on a card for convenience sake. Every truck driver my dh talks to that has tried this card has trouble with it, they put extensive holds on your money, most ATM’s don’t accept it & they have shut down many truckers cards for security reasons, due to getting $$ in so many different areas. THEY ARE TRUCKERS THEY DRIVE. Should have know anything associated with AMEX would be a nightmare they are extremely difficult to work with, this is why so many retailers & restaurants refuse to accept their cards.

When I initially purchased this card, I planned on using it as my main source for making electronic purchases. It was free to load, and the money was available immediately. Sounds good right? I used it to purchase my morning coffee, gas, lunch at fast food establishments and things of that sort. All was well until my phone had gotten smashed, and I had to buy a new one. So I went online to find a good candidate to replace my broken phone, and made the mistake of using this card to make the purchase. For some odd reason my payment was rejected by the merchant. After doing a little bit of research, I found out that this card is not widely accepted because AMEX charges merchants, 10% of the purchase amount (which I probably wouldn’t accept it either if I was a merchant). I was Ok with the payment being rejected, however my issue is, the $192.14 I was spending on the phone, has been pending for 5 days and is unavailable. My question is why are they holding my money for a purchase that never went through. With any other debit I used, if the payment was declined they didn’t hold your money as if it was a successful transaction. To make matters worse, reading through these complaints makes wonder if I’ll even get money back. I’ll probably never use this card again once/if I get my money back. I will keep you all updated with what happens.

This is a wonderful, simple very useful idea, that American Express and Walmart have turned into a complete CLUSTER! I would rather cut off both arms than to deal with the Amercian Express or Walmart employees ever again. I can use this POS at convenience stores and for certain items at walmartand that is all!!!! The lack of knowledge and ability to pass the buck by both Walmart and AMEX employees should receive some kind of acknowledgement. I guess they could win the idiot award for this unusable, worthless piece of plastic. I have called and been placed on hold until I think my head will blow off from frustration and lack of customer satisfaction that was displayed from the minute I purchased this worthless blue bomb through the endless phone calls with uninformed employees, supervisors, two trips to Wal-Mart until now I can use bluebird at convenience stores, for certain items at walmart and pretty much nothing else. The employee that sold me this piece of crap with his lies and promises, had better have been uneducated, or he should be fired. And Walmart and AMEX. should be ashamed,but I know could give two shits. They don’t even read these complaints, because 100,000 to replace me I am sure. i GUESS THAT PRETTY MUCH SUMS IT UP! I HOPE I WAS CLEAR ON BLUEBIRD. ANOTHER UNSATISFIED PISSED OFF CUSTOMER. MICHLE M. DEVINNEY

I am about to cancel my BB account. What a waste of time. Used the mobile App to deposit funds from another account to BB. The check was declined, not because of technical issue, not because of negative credit issue, because of some computer generated “it does not conform to my normal check writing pattern”. Talked to someone in India from Cetergy, they regret they cannot override the computer, blah blah blah. I have been with Amexco since the 80′s I expected better.

ID Verification feeling its a scam
I put money on this card for car payment ok my company will not except it I take money off pay it at money gram now paid an ATM fee and a 10.00 money gram fee
2 days later lunch and gas whoops declined ???? I call them so evidently they are allowed to freeze your account WITHOUT notice pending ID verification If I have used this card for the same things in the past why is it it a problem now
Evidently the computers pick accounts to verify all I get is sorry for the inconvenience but if you fax over required documents we can clear this up in the mean time how was I supposed to pay for my purchases
We are sorry for your inconvenience we will take care of the contact issues we are having but there is nothing we can do we have rules and regulations
I will never use this again you have no right to hold my hard earned money without notice

Horrible experience. The number on back of card goes to India, they can’t speak enough good English to understand. My card is not accepted at any ATm;s that they say are accepting them. My receipt says 0.00 taken out but bluebird took out a whopping 162.00. After several forms faxed and filled out, money was restored to card after 3wks only to have 101.00 taken off the balance for a 20.01 gas purchase.

One major flaw! You can’t have money withdrawn. I set up for my insurance company to take a payment out every month. It fails. You can not use with paypal either. If paypal goes to get the money from your account. It fails. Also, If you try to use bill pay, it can not find the company. They will however mail a check to the company. If they could set those things up, it would be a great alternative to regular checking.

I’d say Bluebird is mediocre at best but if you have to use prepaid it’s one of the better options, in terms of fees that is. Usually people use prepaid financial products because they’re locked out of mainstream products (i.e. bank accounts, credit cards).

I’ve had to call BB customer service a number of times. Each time, I’d say I’ve had a good experience in talking with them. But I shouldn’t have had to call in the first place.

I hope most folks understand that BB may look & work like a bank debit card and credit card but it is not. It doesn’t offer the same protections. Something like BB should only be used if you have no other choice and then only until you can get a savings or checking account going. I believe GoBank is a good alternative to BlueBird if you need a basic checking account with no fees (almost anyone can open one).

I also would have to say Bluebird printing your balance out on receipts at some retailers is just a dumb idea on AmEx’s part. Most people like privacy regard their financial information.

I have a Bluebird & no problems. Its convenient. I load money at Walmart typically without a problem. I have 3 subaccounts and the only difficulty was when my wife used her card at a gas station that automatically held a balance. Even with that she called and they released the hold immediately so no big deal.

Like the card been using it since day one. Get it free at bluebird.com to avoid the $5 set up fee at walmart. free reloads, now is FDIC insured, free cash reloads, mobile check reloads, works great but takes a week. $500 daily limit withdrawal and good luck finding a walmart atm not out of service. The balance on receipts is not cool. But I say best pre paid card with no fees with direct deposit.

Bluebird is a total P.O.S.! I have my direct deposit go straight to my card and still get charged ATM fees (totally opposite of what they advertise) and they locked my account restricting total access to my money until I provide I.D. and social security card. Not worth even the $5 for the activation kit. Customer service is no help, incomprehensible, and supervisors are not available.

I work for a large bank and ordered this card to give to my irresponsible brother so that I could provide him additional funds, as needed from a distance (we live in different states and he often needs financial assistance). I was also drawn in by the fact that it has no ties to my credit score, cannot be overdrafted, and that it offered online access to check balances, etc. What I’ve learned through my experiences thus far, with Bluebird, is that it is geared toward the “Wal-Mart” demographic. Individuals who have made some questionable financial decisions in their lives that no longer allow them to have access to traditional banking products. You know who you are.

You’re probably using this card because you have bad credit, are reported in Chex Systems (overdrafted your previous bank accounts and were unable to repay your obilgation to said bank/financial institution), or have burned your bridges (commited an act of fraud or theft of some kind) with a bank in the US within the last 10 years, right?

You thought you could get around having to answer to the music of your past mistakes by ordering this nifty little card that promises “no fees” , “direct deposit” , and the ability to use it “almost anywhere”, still sounding familiar? WAKE UP.

This card is NOT a checking account, or even a “bank” account of any kind. Stop expecting it to be usable in the same manner as a normal debit card. First of all, it’s an American Express PREPAID card. Anyone who actually has an AMEX credit card knows that roughly 60% of merchants do not accept anything with an AMEX logo (be it a credit card, prepaid debit card, or these Bluebird Cards) on it.

Second, the holds, locks, freezes, and no cash back options others have complained about here are set in place to conduct financial transactions with high risk individuals such as yourselves legally, and with some caution. Holds are placed on some deposits made to your card because the funds need to be verified. WHY? I think you know the answer..Its because you have taken advantage of immediate postings in the past (be real, if you hadn’t done so, you’d still have your REAL checking account). The locks and freezes when attempting to transfer from other people’s debit cards/bank accounts (that you are not AN AUTHORIZED SIGNER/CO-OWNER OF) are actually Federally Regulated stipulations that are mandated by the Federal Reserve. They protect against money laundering and illegal activities related to the electronic transactions Bluebird customers engage in. Again, you are dealing with these tightened restraints because you weren’t responsible enough to handle an actual bank account. You’ve lost your right to have a REAL bank account, the only person you should be blaming is yourself. I’ve heard every story in the book about how it was SOMEONE else’s fault that they ended up in a financial pickle. It all comes back to you, OWN IT.

A REAL bank has the ability to make special dispensation for those who demonstrate an ability to not overdraft their accounts, have overdraft protection accounts in place should they make an HONEST mistake, and for those individuals who have more “business” (I.e. large amounts of cash on deposit, multiple accounts such as a mortgage, credit card, car loan/lease) with said bank/financial institution. For example because I have my mortgage, my car loan, and a credit card, checking and savings account with my bank, they do not place holds on even large, out of state, deposit items (including checks and direct deposits). If you don’t have a REAL bank account, then don’t expect to have the same features as a REAL bank account. You’ve already proven you cannot be trusted financially so why would American Express/Bluebird go out on a limb for someone who has made unethical, deliberate, and poor choices when it comes to money? Sorry about your life… But you are in this situation because of you, and you didnt handle your affairs like an adult. OWN IT.

This card works for one thing and one thing only. I put money onto the card, my brother visits an ATM in his city and withdraws it. Guess what people? He can relate… He’s one of you. He complains about it not working at the gas station to buy his cigarettes, he complains that his disability check can’t be direct deposited, and he complains that his 6th girlfriend this year can’t link her food stamp card to it and transfer money over. Think about how foolish you all sound complaining about this card. My brother sounds foolish, and he is just that, a fool. Not all of you are so lucky to have an older brother to help you pay your bills. In that case, pay your bils, get a REAL bank account, and take accountability.

If you’re unable to take care of your financial affairs then this is the option available to you. Be happy and grateful that there even is an option. The advertising makes no false claims, and you’ll find that if you’re being HONEST with yourself that KARMA comes round and round and round. So please, do us all a favor and get it together. If you can’t get a bank account, you’re a a mess.

Underwriter get off this thread! You know nothing about these people. For one I was using this card for secure purchases and my wife was using one to give money to the kids when they needed it. Having a bank account doesn’t change the fact that Amex is changing the card rules now. Visa has locked my debit card and credit card because Amex tried to take money when I didn’t give them permission to do so. Amex doesn’t need your bank info, but to add money it is easier to do so. Now I have to make special arrangements so I can use my own bank account to keep it secure. Funny how you think your a smart guy there. Most of us on here are tired of people like you claiming your better and you have no clue that federal regulations have changed making Amex a company you really don’t want money with.

Don July 8, 2014 at 9:02AM

I’ve had the card for a little over a year. It’s the most economical card I’ve ever used. I’m trying to figure out some scheme to direct deposit myself since my employer doesn’t offer it and I’d prefer to use the walmart atm for free. But other than that, considering they’re the only choice I have at this point in my financial meltdown, I love it. I get through to customer service 24/7. So they are located in India. Takes a bit longer to get things straightened out, but it’s nice to have people staffing the phones at 4am Sunday. The holds on gas purchases are the same as all cards do. If anyone has an idea as to how to direct deposit myself, let me know. I’m thoroughly happy with the product

Jerry Thompson September 1, 2014 at 3:09AM

I make more money then your piece of shit ass. I guarantee you I do. I have over 100 records of banks reporting me on chexsystems and have obtained 100′s and thousands of dollars across almost all 50 states. And guess what ?????? My credit is excellent and I have 5 real bank accounts. So go fuck off and enjoy making minimum wage at your piece of shit slave micro-managed job.

Carlane May 17, 2013 at 7:06PM

THIS CARD IS SOME BS. MOST OF MY CREDITORS WANT ACCEPT. CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS. NOT WORTH THE TIME.

I have recently gotten the blue bird card this weekend and haven’t had any problems with it. It’s probably because I haven’t activated it yet for all the “fancy” online features for it. I probably wont anytime soon from the reviews on here.

BlueBird is a nightmare. My dad set me up a subaccount on his card. I had him cancel it so I could set up my own. I was told I needed a new phone number since my cell number had already been used to set up a sub account. WTF?!? The subaccount was cancelled and you want me to pay for another phone line just to setup an account with you?? Finally got the card set up using my cell number and the e-mail wrong.

Fixed that problem. Waited for card to come and got 2 cards in the mail!! One for the cancelled sub account and one for my primary account. Couldn’t get them to tell me why they sent me a card for a cancelled account. Makes me wonder how secure my info really is.

My dad tries to transfer funds to my card and his account gets locked. His pin never worked for fund transfer. I finally just closed mine without ever getting money loaded. He will do the same but only after withdrawing money from ATM or spending it. He won’t wait 7-10 days!!

When I left my company. My retirement plan deposited my funds into this Bluebird account via direct deposit. It has been life in hell since then. I’ve been barraged with calls from Amex security even though they have held my funds from a major retirement firm. Every purchase or transaction I make I get a security call saying I need to send a faxed copy for the retirement fund deposit confirmation number, which I’ve never heard before!! So I said why don’t American Express call them themselves what good would my confirmation number do if you guys are not going to call them to confirm the confirmation number? Multiple security staff could not answer my question…Each time I fax this confirmation number, a security person says, okay sir you are free to make normal transactions… They have not and claim will not freeze my account but each time I pay a bill or make a purchase , they ask again for that same confirmation deposit number from weeks ago? Am I losing my mind or are these people from Amex Bluebird not even regulated? They should be happy I deposited thousands of dollars into their virtual bank!! Instead I have been harassed. If this continues I will make a major complaint by blogging and publicly express what I’ve experienced backed by documentation through You Tube… I am also a major Foodspotting member with thirty five thousand followers. Keep it up Amex Bluebird. I’m this close to unloosing my account and using Paypal instead. Only thing holding me up is your company limiting my withdrawals to $500 daily limit and closing my account, Lord only knows how long you would hold my funds…My plan? Direct deposit my funds into my Capital 1 360 savings account and transfer funds for free into my Paypal Account when I need to use my Paypal debit card which works great and has no weird rules…Slowly withdrawing my funds $500 a day until its all gone-unless of course there’s a limit on a monthly withdrawal, then I’m screwed- bye bye Bluebird… I think…

You’ve spared me the time by your comments! I too, was stunned by the email received by AmEx wanting my DL and SSN !!!! I actually checked the headers ; sure that it was a scam. I was shocked to discover AmEx HAD sent it. Well, the only SCAM is AmEx. NO WAY would I fax that. I’m telling everyone I know about it, and I’m informing Walmart CS employees to NOT direct customers to Bluebird. I tried for over an hour, moving up the ladder to gain someone’s ear that would understand the security concerns. Every fax machine has a CAMERA on it, and those “images” are imbedded in the motherboard, so to speak, the hard drive, the memory chip. And China and the east takes millions of fax machines, and ALL other digital toys that’s thrown away, strips them down, just for the gold and other goodies they can get. There are companies here in the US that ship directly to them our castoffs. I SHUDDER to think what kind of identity items they glean from that. God help us all. Thanks to all who have shared here. I’ll use down my temp card and share with the world.

I am a bluebird customer; the only thing I find wrong with this card is false advertisement, either carried on by the malicious blue bird account administrators. I mean false advertisement, because this people tells you that you can use money pass available at many ATM machines, but the truth of the matter is that, all those Money Pass ATM machines are located inside businesses that are under Federal supervision, and it is very inconvenient to accessing this ATMs because in order to get to those ATMs you must be checked by the security, such as the Prudential Building in Newark, NJ. Some ATMs, Some locations where these ATMs are located close too early, and some ATMs are none existing. All this malicious service thought of with the intentions of the blue bird owners working under American Express to make their two dollars. Because if you do not take your money out at Walmart’s ATM, or a Money Pass ATM, and you choose to use any other bank’s ATM, the Bank’s ATM is going to charge you, example PNC Bank’s branch ATM will charge you $3.00, and blue bird 2.00 which adds up to $5.00 dollars fee between blue bird and as I said PNC Bank’s Branch. So, is it really worthy to be paying $5.00 every time you need to withdraw cash out your blue bird account; I don’t think so. That right there is the greatest inconvenience the blue bird card by American express has. Everything else is ok!.

I tried to deposit my paycheck to Bluebird. Didn’t accept. I cashed my paycheck elsewhere (and paid the fee), then tried to deposit the cash in Bluebird. Only accepted $1000.
Tried to make a money order out of the Bluebird card. Did not allow me, because it’s a credit card (credit? with my own money?). I tried then to withdraw my money. Only allowed $500, including the fee. So I had to ask for $496 and wait until the next day.

Customer service at two Walmart stores did not know anything about these limitations.

I tried to call the Bluebird customer service, had to wait infinitely. Typed my card number on the phone, then the customer support asked me for the number again – they didn’t receive my input.
The whole experience was horrible. I’m deeply disappointed with Walmart. Will close this account A.S.A.P.

I’ve had the card since it has come out, however, I haven’t used it heavily because I kept seeing all the reviews and comments that the card was being locked without warning. This month I have been using the card regularly, for small purchases, and sho’ nuff… my card was locked out of the blue. I was surprised that at 9:30pm I was able to get the issue resolved and that I was talking to an American, even though all the comments I’ve read said the customer service reps are foreigners. To resolve the issue I had to fax a copy of my social security card. I don’t understand why, since this is a prepaid card. Bottom line, in theory this is a perfect card, but in reality I would start off using it lightly until they have fixed all the kinks, such as the locking down out of nowhere. It’s a good start, but American Express and Walmart have a ways to go.

I just created a sub-account to use. If the sub-account ever gets locked up i just unlock it with the main account. I just use the main account in case my sub-account gets locked up or for adding money. Bluebird so far has been great. I switched from the American express prepaid card to bluebird as bluebird doesn’t charge a fee to add cash to it

The “no fee” options on this card are great. However, the problems with this card greatly outweigh any such benefits. Problem 1: First employer direct deposit didn’t post until 10 am on my payday, Problem 2: 2nd Direct Deposit from my employer didn’t post til 5:30 pm on my payday. (Good thing I didn’t have any major bills that needed to be paid by 5 to avoid late fees, disconnection, etc). I also run a small home based business. Often times my customers pay me with a check. I used the MObile Deposit feature on the Mobile App to deposit the check. 6 business days for a $33.92 check to clear!! My husband has a BOA account and we use mobile deposit at least once a week, so I know how quickly mobile deposit can work. Problem 3: Multiple calls to customer service in regards to above mentioned issues. They are not in the US and can barely speak English. You have to answer a crapload of security questions before you have the chance to talk to someone and then they ask you all those same questions over again-very annoying. On top of that, they really have no idea what they are doing or what to even say to you in regards to the above mentioned problems. They don’t let you talk to supervisors and if you continue to ask for one-they will simply disconnect you. Problem 4: Non-payroll Direct Deposit of only $11.36 took 5 business days to post. The sender of the funds was easily able to verify that the funds had been sent and accepted by Bluebird, yet when speaking to customer service they had no idea of it. They just give you the same generic message when you have an issue getting your money: “Funds are credited by 2pm EST on the actual date of your paycheck.” Problem 5: If you pre-auth this card at the pump to buy gas..be prepared for them to put $100 hold on your account. This happened at every gas station and had nothing to do with the policies of the individual gas station-its the card policy. Problem 6: After not wanting $100 on hold for gas when I was putting in maybe $30-$40 bucks, I started to go inside to pay and quickly found out that when you pay at some stores the merchant copy of the receipt also includes your full name, full account number, beginning balance in your account before your purchase, and the ending balance in your account after purchase, and also the expiration date.
I am looking for another alternative to a prepaid card as the headache this card entails isn’t worth it. It was a great concept, but severely fails in so many areas.

I was using the Bluebird card to pay my $8.00 Netflix bill. I have had the card for about 6 months and successfully loaded $8.00 onto it every month. It says clearly on the box and the website that there is a $1.00 minimum load amount. I switched from the Wal-Mart money card to the Bluebird card because I was sick of the $20.00 minimum load amount, $3.00 load fee, and additional $3.00 fee they pulled off the card every month. Why pay $26.00 for an $8.00 bill? I went to load my monthly $8.00 on the Bluebird card on April 13, 2013 and the register kept telling me a $20.00 minimum load amount was required. Bullsh*t!! I had to try 2 different registers at Wal-Mart, then the woman at customer service had me call Bluebird. Of course, I couldn’t understand what the 2 people who talked to me were saying. Now I know they’re in India after reading these reviews. They were not helpful AT ALL. Finally, after an hour and 12 minutes of sitting in Wal-Mart on my cell phone, the guy says, “We’re busy. When we fix it we will email or call you.” Jerk! It’s been 3 days and no word from them. In the meantime, my Netflix account has been disconnected. I don’t have cable (by choice, it’s a rip off), so this is quite the inconvenience for me as I now have no TV to watch. I refuse to bow down and pay $20.00 for an $8.00 bill! That same day my boyfriend took his Bluebird card to Wal-Mart and tried to load my $8.00 on it so I could use it for my Netflix and the same $20.00 error popped up with his, so it’s not just my card, Bluebird is doing this to everybody. We are both going to our respective credit unions tomorrow and getting debit cards. Don’t waste your time with this useless piece of plastic!

They’re HORRIBLE!!! The fees I “assume” are great if you’re one that uses prepaid cards often…However, BEWARE of the other hassels you will endure from hotel pre-auths…rental car nightmares and direct deposit HOLDS or lock downs….My advice– DON’T do it!!!

Worst experience ever! I can’t wait to get rid of this card, and I have been a satisfied and happy Amex customer for many years. It takes forever to move money or get it back, it often doesn’t work and if a sub-account tries to use it and there are insufficient funds, it takes the entire balance and holds it up to 8 days. Had trouble loading it at Walmart and salesclerk said many people have same problems. No one at Walmart can help you- they tell you to call Amex. The people I had trying to “help” were condescending and unhelpful, telling me things like the cards was used at a merchant that doesn’t accept Amex (Walgreens, which DOES) and it was the merchant who grabbed the balance (not true, as Walgreen’s explained, it’s the card. It doesn’t happen with a regular debit card.)Oh, and it doesn’t work right on Firefox. I am off to a credit union to open a free checking account so I can get a debit card for my mother with mild dementia. Even SHE knew this card was a nightmare.

I hate them. I am a Navy wife, my husband is in Iraq, and he deposits money onto the card, Bluebird has $950.00, and they locked my card due to my husband logging into my account to see if I need more money, they said it’ll take up ti 45 days for them to re-open my card. So I’m broke. Do not use the card, I did a search and they have bad feedback.. I’m not the first person this has happen to.

DO NOT BUY THE CARD IF YOU’RE MILITARY. THEY’LL SCREW YOU OUT OF YOUR MONEY.

I am having the BIGGEST issue with them as we speak! I am new to the card, I had to have it for direct deposit for my employer. I set it up and was told by one of the supervisors that despite their new rule of “No direct deposit until you have a personalized card” my direct deposit would NOT be an issue! He told me to print the direct deposit information and give it to my employer. THEN this morning I receive an email stating that the day after I activated my card the policy changed and they can no longer accept direct deposits on the start up card. I received the email this morning, the day my direct deposit was to take place! When I called Bluebird again I was told by another supervisor that in fact my deposit would be fine, as long as it did not exceed $1500. The deposit would show after 2pm. Well at 230p no deposit. So I call AGAIN! Only to be told by that the other two supervisors were mistaken, or hadn’t gotten the memo yet regarding the update, and I would not be getting my funds direct deposited. Thank you call center in New Delhi India! Their call centers are not even in the US!! He could only say “Unfortunately there is nothing we can do”. Seriously!! It is Easter weekend, I was counting on having my paycheck on time as I was assured it would be. Thanks a lot!

all you folks dissing Bluebird need to get off the couch and get a life. I’ve had Bluebird 4 year and never had an issue if I had a problem with my account. I call Bluebird in 5 minutes later is resolved with an English speaking person. Bluebird is the bomb.

Greg, I think you stated that he has had his BB card for a year. Not 4yrs. But even then BB was launched back in October 2012. So 8 months now. Not even a year old yet. Greg could be an AMEX BB employee. Or maybe he is one of those very lucky few to not have all the issues that are mentioned here?

Fred Willey June 5, 2013 at 8:00AM

Well I hope your time bomb doesn’t blow up on you! You think all these people are bad-mouthing BB because it’s some conspiracy against AmEx and Walmart? Not too likely!

DON’T DO IT!!!!!!!! This has been the biggest headache EVER, so much so I have opted to go back to regular checking.. I understand some people have issues opening a checking account, however, many financial institutions do offer second chance banking.. Trust me you would rather pay the service fee. First, anytime you call customer service you ALWAYS get someone from India who lacks common sense or training. I lost my card 1 MONTH ago and I still haven’t gotten the replacement yet! I tried using my sub-accounts card to purchase groceries but they declined the transaction(with more than enough funds available to cover the charge), when I called and asked they said I never tried running my card! Really? Because I was standing there with groceries that I wasn’t able to take! THEN they tell me that it was declined because my card wasn’t active, I had used it the night before. *sigh* I can’t stand people who lie and people who have no clue as to what they’re saying and instead of admitting they’re stupid and transfer the call to someone who MIGHT know, they tell you whatever in hopes you believe it..Once again, DON’T DO IT!!!!!! Just remember you DO get what you pay for!!

Oh yea, India and walmart team up to rip people off under the name american express. How american is your walmart? People at all cost we need to unite and stop this greed do not support walmart and this phoney amex program. DO NOT GET THIS CARD!!!

I got this card to hide some extra cash but no hide here. This card is bad for anyone who cares about there privacy. All your balance and card info are printed on all reciept even an online purchases. who ever is the merchant they know all your balances, and it is easy for a underhanded merchant take your money.Do not leave a reciept where someone shaddy can get to it. just look at your reciept.

I am so sorry yo hear about the issues everyone is having with their card this card has been awesome for me,I purchased this card on wednesday,set up my online account and downloaded the mobile app on my cellphone, got the permanent card the following monday…I have had no issues reloading at walmart and no issues with direct deposit

I am furious this morning! I activated a bluebird card earlier this month. I decided to add money to it a couple of days ago. I had no problem transferring money from another of my debit cards and my balance was updated almost immediately. I tried doing the same thing last night, but got an error message saying my card was not activated and I could not load money. I called customer service and was told that I would have to speak to Account Protection Services. I tried calling and had to leave a message! I called customer service back and this time was told my account was activated but that Account Protection Services had put a block on my account and that the funds I loaded (not a small amount) could also not be accessed!! I also found out that Account Protection Services is unavailable on the weekends so I will have to wait until Monday morning to talk to someone. At this point, all I want to do is withdraw my money and destroy that card! This is ridiculous! I never thought a company associated with American Express would steal my money, but that is exactly what has happened. I do not recommend that anyone trust this company with their money! Beware!! This card is a complete rip-off!

I would honestly say this is the worst card I have had, and the customer service is by far the worst. I have had problems from the beginning and just recently closed the account. It would be a very long review if I were to write out all of the problems. I personally abhor the big banking industry, but I would say open an account at Wells Fargo (my least favorite) before I would suggest using a Bluebird card. There are much better alternatives for people whose credit is bad or are locked out from banks that use Chexsystem.

JUST SAY NO!!!
I’ve had nothing but problems with the account, and I found out the hard way, just how many retailers and businesses don’t accept American Express, since getting this card.
I’ve had the account for a little more than 2 months, but last week Thursday was the breaking point for me. I tried to log onto my account to verify my direct deposit, only to find that I had been locked out. My account was frozen because of presumed fraud. This wouldn’t have been a problem; however they never bothered to notify me by e-mail of their actions. After waiting for more than ½ hour to be connected to a Customer Service rep in the fraud department, I get a condescending and rude individual that finally unlocked my account. When I asked him about my direct deposit, he told me it would not be affected by the account being frozen, and my deposit would most likely post later that day.
It was almost 9:30 am. EST when I finally hung up with him. At 9:38, I received an E-mail that since my account was frozen, they had refused my direct deposit, and that I needed to contact my employer to make other arrangements to get my pay check.
Customer Service is in India, and to say that they aren’t very helpful would be an understatement. You’re lucky if you can even understand them. All they continued to tell me is that it would take 3 to 5 business days for MY MONEY to be returned to my Employer. I requested to speak with a Supervisor. When I asked her for their mailing address, she told me she couldn’t give it to me. I asked her why and she told me because she was in India. I then requested to speak with a Customer Service representative in the United State, and she refused.
I’ve gone to my employer, but they can’t re-issue me my paycheck until the money comes back into the payroll account, which as of this morning, it has not, so Bluebird/American express is using my money for free, and I’m stuck without a paycheck.
I’ve found a lawyer that’s willing to take on American Express and No, this won’t get my money back any faster, but I’m tired of people telling me to hurry up and wait, when they aren’t the ones being inconvenienced due to their stupidity. I know that they are new to the Debit Card game, but that doesn’t excuse them for making their customers pay for being poorly prepared to enter a new market.

This card is the worst!!! You pay bills online and they bill the creditor multiple times and all your money is gone. You have to call customer service and they email you a form to fill out and fax it back to them and wait 6 to 8 weeks to get it. Meanwhile your utilities get shut off etc…… DO NOT GET THIS CARD!

BLUE BIRD IS FOR THE BIRDS.
I liked most of the things I have heard mainly from their commercials and info published. I guess I would be the idiot for not checking reviews first. I went to pull 500 out of the a PNC atm, which by the way is the only method of retrieving my funds as they have no bank to visit, have no atm of their own and every other atm would charge a fee. The atm declined to offer me my funds which I had checked one minute prior to ensure were in there. It gave me receipts for each time I tried stating the action selected is not currently available. On my way to work in a rush I checked my account and lone and behold the money was removed from my account. I called them and was greeted by the same foreigner who was only able to dispute the charge and I would have to wait 6-8 months to hear back from them. The funds were to add to my account in which I pay my rent out of. I will now be short and be charged 160 for being late. Judging by the poor manner in which they try and assist their customers I will not get that back. I would only be so lucky just to get the funds replaced to my account if that ever happens. They state direct deposits are posted very quickly, it actually took the longest out of any debit card I have ever had. This just adds to the giant inconvenience.

-NO BANK TO VISIT
-MOST ATM’S WILL CHARGE YOU A FEE
-SLOW DIRECT DEPOSIT
-CUSTOMER SERVICE WHICH SHOULD BE RENAMED CUSTOMER INCONVENIENCE

ALL IN ALL PLEASE NEVER USE THIS CARD ITS A WASTE OF TIME.
AMERICAN EXPRESS SHOULD REALLY LOOK INTO THIS AND ALL THESE MATTERS BEFORE ALLOWING THERE NAME TO BE PRINTED ON THE CARD

I WANT TO AGREE 100%! DO NOT get one of these cards. I have tried to load money onto the card at walmart 5 different times and every time, their “system is down”. I finally did a transfer of funds from my bank account. (I am trying to pay ONE bill with this card – its the only reason I got it – and I am going on just over three weeks of trying!) After waiting three days, I called their joke of a “customer service” number to see why the fund were still pending. I talked to two people who only repeated over and over that the funds wouldnt be on the card for another five days. I could not believe it would take so long, so I tried to cancel the transaction, but they wouldn’t do it. They said I would have to wait until the funds show up on my card before they can send the money back (taking another 5 days in the process). So now Im stuck in limbo hoping like hell that the funds post before this stupid bill of mine goes into collections. SOOOO, long story short, DO NOT GET ONE OF THESE CARDS!! They are worse than most of the other prepaid cards. I have never had one take so long to post a payment!! I had a paypower card for over a year, and have use paypal, and the visa prepaid cards. ALL of those other cards have your funds loaded within 24hours! I am willing to pay a 3 dollar fee for the convenience of NOT HAVING TO WAIT A WEEK AND A HALF FOR MY FUNDS TO TRANSFER ONTO THIS CARD!! I will NEVER use this card again.

I too made the mistake of falling for this card. Thought it would be great for our income tax return; due to the fact that we don’t like all the fees associated with a standard bank account. Couldn’t even get it registered online. Called customer service and waited for over 20 minutes to be told by the rep that there was nothing they could tell me; “we cannot see what their reason is for not being able to verify. However, you can try to register again but you will not be able to use the same email address.” DO WHAT? Unlike some people, I don’t have 3-4 email accounts and I don’t see the need to create a new one just because of a system error. Apparantly after reading similar issues, there is some sort of problem with their verification system and the supposed customer is the victim! I told them to cancel the whole thing because it was obviously garbage and that I wanted a refund of my $20.00. Now I have to wait for 7-10 business days for the refund, but I’m not holding my breath that I will ever see it. THe customer service rep kept me on hold for almost an hour and then informed me that she was having problems with my address…good God lady, don’t you think I know where the hell I live? I am furious still and this all happend some 6 hours ago. DO NOT buy this card. Run the other way, get a bank account or credit union account. At least they are somewhat up front about screwing you…not this Bluebird crap!

I use it for online purchases or stuff on the Xbox, Netflix, Xbox live etc . I just reload some at Walmart each time I go. We have an account and sub account,no problems transferring, or lost money. Simple enough for me, but those hoping and dreaming for a prepaid credit card with no annual fee to size up to a federal bank card is idiotic.Why would you put your retirement any where but a bank,much less on a recent released prepaid credit card? if you just trying to buy some stuff it’s fine, but don’t cling to the thought of getting a free bank card… because it’s not

Do Not Get This Card! Unless you like waiting over a week to access money that you deposit to the account. Don’t believe that there are no fees. They are using your money for a week or more without giving you access to it, so they are making their fees in that way. Nothing is more frustrating than not having access to your money. As soon as this card is reduced to zero balance, assuming I ever get access to my money, I am ripping this scam card up. I am just hoping to avoid the call to their notorious Indian call center.

Nice card (so far)….I have read alot of comments about trouble with this card. My experience was not the same. I bought the starter pack from Walmart and loaded it with $40. After returning home, I had no issues signing up for my permanent card. I have used the card at Target, ordered pizza from Domino’s, and paid for lunch at some fast food places like McDonald’s and Wendy’s. No issues what so ever. My permanent card came within 2-3 weeks. I have not had to contact customer service. So, I cannot comment on those challenges from other users. So far so good….. Guess I’m one of the lucky ones.

I use my card as a replacement for cash ‘envelope’ items that include daily expenses of cash and food. I don’t use the ATM feature at all since I use the card as cash.

BE WARY, BE WARNED! I went to the ATM at the Walmart tonight to get my money out and the damn thing printed a receipt saying ‘Declined. Reason: Bank Unavailable.” So I called the Customer service hotline, was told, yea, they were experiencing difficulties and updating the system. BUT… two minutes later, I went to check my account and it said it approved my transaction. WHAT THE HELL? I loved this card because it had no fees, but this is the second time this month, “systems have been experiencing problems” and I was unable to get my freaking money I was trying to withdraw. Walmart couldn’t give me the money because they didn’t have a record in their system showing any transactions were made on that ATM at that time. Even though I had the receipt, showing them my online account showing it was approved, I have NADA! Nothing! Zilch! My money is gone. I had to put it in dispute to get my money back. It will go into affect in two days. And then there is no guarantee that they can give me my money back. I have no money for my son’s medicine. No money for my husband to put gas in his truck. No money to even buy toiletries that are necessary. If my dispute comes out in my favor or not, I will never use this card again. If anyone ever ask me about the card, I will tell them this story. And yes, you may find this online elsewhere too because I am going to make people aware that my money was stolen from Bluebird, NOT Walmart. I just want my effing money back. That’s it. I want to pay bills and get my son his medicine.

not everywhere accepts AMEX which, by assuming with common sense of course, is probably why she was using the ATM………

missy January 11, 2013 at 8:57AM

I have this bluebird by Amex, I thought it would be a good idea to have my check direct deposited. however I feel these people can not be trusted my account is 60 dollars short and there is no transaction to validate it, I have repeated called and they said they have to contsact the technical department. then when I call again cause the moneys still not back oon my account, they informed me there was no error, however there is. then i called back spoke with another rep in they stated they see the error and will contact the tech team. I am so sick of this bs. they are totally unprofesional. I really dont recomend it to anyone, however if you have this card do check in balance everyday.

WHAT A SCAM! I thought surely something with Amex backing it would be legit. WRONG! I bought this for my son as he is 18 and dosen’t make much money as a waiter. Thought this would be a good start. Could not get it registered on line as it couldn’t “verify” who he was. WHAT? What does that even mean? What’s to verify? Called and got an Indian person who transferred me to someone else who just kept saying over and over that their system couldn’t “verify” the info. I kept arguing with her to tell me why and what that is supossed to mean and she hung up on me. Thank goodness I’m only out $10. Thank goodness for social media since I’m going to tell everyone I know to beware!

Don’t believe all the hype Wal-Mart and American Express are promoting on their webpages for the BLUEBIRD CARD!! This card is nothing but a legalized scam.

AFTER you deposit money at the register and purchase the card you will have HOURS of work only to be told when setting up online that your account is locked and you need to call. Then good lock getting thru and when you do it is someone who obviously doesn’t live in the U.S.

Very perplexing as to why they need another checking account number, social security number and run a credit report for a simple pre-paid card that OH BY THE WAY they already have your money on. And all this confidential information that you give them is going to a 3rd world country somewhere???

In todays society of identity theft it was not worth it to me and I lost my $20 I put on the card at the cash register because I would not give them the info just to get my money back. I also attempted to return card with receipt after I was “LOCKED” out from trying to set up and was told that it was non-returnable nor could I get my money back.

They supposedly don’t charge any fees on anything because they LOCK your account from the get go and steal any money you already have on it. 100% Profit for them. No wander there are no fees!! IT IS A COMPLETE SCAM!!

This thing is a worthless, ripoff paperweight. I got it to have student loan money deposited which I could do with any other card-not this piece of crap. Also, Netflix won’t touch this card-my other prepaid debit cards worked just fine. I decided to try bluebird and it is a total ripoff. I called to report problems and basically got called a liar. Im reporting them to the Better Business Bureau. They and Walmart should be ashamed of themselves for stealing from people.

please what ever you do dont get this card you are in for some pain. you cant get cash back at no stores and free atm is a joke . they have double bill 6 times in one day then told me i had to wait 24 hours ive gotten have back and still fighting to get the rest back .please dont get the card from hell.

I agree that Bluebird is TERRIBLE. I got it mostly for the convenience of using the SmartPhone app, but it doesn’t work half the time. Depositing checks via the app is supposed to take 15 seconds, but in most cases, it times out. I only have success depositing a check on the first try about 25% of the time. I have also heard that wish traditional bank apps, checks are credited very quickly. Bluebird started with 5 days hold time. Now it has increased to 6, and I see from this blog that some customers wait even longer. I was weary when WalMart got involved in this, but I suspended my concerns because of AMEX’s involvement. I am going to get all my money out of Bluebird and rip up the card. STAY AWAY! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

DO NOT BUY THIS CARD! Initially, it sounded really great– no fees– which is why I loaded nearly $500 (cash) on it to purchase Christmas gifts online. When I attempted to register it, however, I was informed that there was a “glitch” in the system… and, as a result, I was denied access to my money. The representative told me that this happens “often.” I’m on a budget, and this was all of my Christmas money. No gifts this year. Walmart does not offer refunds. And, American Express Bluebird requires that I send a “government issued identification,” in order to receive my refund. (None of this information was required when I purchased the card, so I’m not sure what information to which they are matching it. ?) The processing time for the “investigation” could take up to 10 days. Then, I was informed that an additional 15-20 days are required in order to receive the refund check. Customer service is terrible. It sounds as though you are transferred overseas, which means there is often a language barrier. And, there are no clear answers. Please… save yourself a headache.

what a joke!!!!! a complete nightmare!!!!! wife on phone with customer service for over an hour. 1st card registered ok with a few hitches. if registering multiple cards need multiple email accounts. if there is a problem you have to create another email to try and fix problem, are you serious? yes i am!!!!! cant talk to english speaking csr. “BlueBird” is right because you will be singing the “Blues” stay away. Nightmare Nightmare Nightmare. Refunds take 10 business days. Never again, learned our lesson.

Blue bird is terrible. I can’t register online and my starter is the worst. It seems like every time I buy an item, there is an additional two dollars deducted from my balance. Don’t get this crap. Waste of money.

The bluebird pre-paid card IS A JOKE!!! Complete SCAM!! STAY AWAY!! They do not answer your calls,ask you to leave messages that are never returned,on hold for hours at a time!! I have lost money with them that I have been trying to recover for 2 weeks now and HAVE NOT had any luck at all!!! You reach what sounds like a offshore call center and they are definitely ARE NO HELP AT ALL!! DO NOT GET THIS CARD AT ALL!!!

This card is a JOKE. Customer service? 30 minutes to an hour hold time, and or you are just told,”too busy, call back later..” Can’t UNLOAD funds at any Walmart, and the Walmart Money Center folks have NO CLUE as to what the card even is. $500 ATM limit.. NOPE try $300. Online Bill Pay? Funds sent by US POSTAL MAIL? They lose mail all the time.

Fair Warning – If you want grief and headaches and not having access to your cash, this card is for you!

DO NOT get sucked into Bluebird. I did, deposited a check 10 business days ago via the iPhone app and STILL don’t have the money in my account. The check has cleared the issuing bank 5 days ago, so depositing it isn’t an option in my local account.

Bluebird outright lied to me when I deposited the check, saying 5 business days it would be available. My account site with them states it should have been available days ago, yet after a very long wait to talk to support they say the 5 business days is not a guarantee, and it can take up to 30.

I bought one at WalMart but find out I can’t use it! After getting it home & trying to register on line I read some of the fine print. As a Canadian who spends almost 6 months in the USA every year I thought this would be great – deposit from partners US bank account and use the card instead of having to carry cash. But no, you need a SSS number, a US bank account in your own name and a USA email address. So, useless to me – thank goodness it was only $ 5.00

Obviously you don’t know what you are talking about, and are just adding lies about the card. Your grammar sucks too. Which means you must be one of those workers from bluebird trying to spread lies about how great your card is.

I use bluebird, its checking alternative and features and I have never had a problem. I pay my bills, use my checks and use the prepaid card in stores, where accepted because I do very verify before I make a purchase that they will accept it. I transfer from my regular checking account and the money is posted immediately and ready to be used. I never use a debit card to deposit money or in Walmart stores.I purchase items online effectively and I have even dined at restaurants using the bluebird card with no problems. I think it’s a great idea for those individuals like me that try to protect their main bank accounts, and an excellent alternative for those i dividuals unable to have a bank account. I recommend it 100%, oh it does work in Europe very well. Thumbs up!!

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